


Forgive Me Father, For I Have Sinned (And I Loved Every Minute)

by FearTheSpork



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: And I am going straight to Hell, Beware badly translated Latin, But I think we kind of need it right now, Chloe is a demon, F/M, Get your asses ready for some Priest on Demon action, I'll make bloody sure of it, It's an AU y'all, Lucifer is a priest, We'll get through these hard times with sex and sin, i went overboard, mentions of a rough childhood, tattooed priest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 08:21:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14328432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FearTheSpork/pseuds/FearTheSpork
Summary: Father Morningstar becomes more and more intrigued when a mysterious woman begins showing up to every Sunday service.Meanwhile, a demon is fascinated when she runs into a priest outside of his church and finds herself wanting something for the first time in eons.-Or, the AU no-one asked for but I delivered anyway.





	Forgive Me Father, For I Have Sinned (And I Loved Every Minute)

**Author's Note:**

> So right now, we're all a little bummed out (see; very bummed out) about having to struggle through the next few episodes of Hell to get to the good sticky sweet Deckerstar that we know is waiting. So to help you all through, I kicked the arse of my writers block to bring you twenty-four thousand words of me slowly but surely corrupting a priest.
> 
> He didn't really put up much of a fight.

“Welcome back everyone! It’s so good to see you all here on this fine Sunday morning. I know there are other things that you might prefer to be doing but it pleases me greatly that you all chose to come here instead. I’m sure God would say the same.”

 

It was a warm Sunday morning in April and as he looked down at the members of his congregation, Father Lucifer Morningstar couldn’t help but smile. His smooth voice echoed off of the stone walls around them and with just one sentence, he had the peoples attention for the rest of the service.

 

Most of them offered him a similar greeting, smiles and muttered ‘ _good morning Father_ ’s bandied around and then quickly lost in the vastness of the building. He made his way through the few announcements- one about the upcoming bake sale on Tuesday and another about praying for Mrs. Newman- recovering in hospital after a kidney transplant.

 

Nothing particularly exciting to the outside world but enough to get a few excited murmurs in the pews between the older people.

 

They did love their weekly gossip. He could only pray that he wouldn’t get too caught up in his goodbyes today. He’d like to be home by sundown at least.

 

Much to his delight, he could see a few new faces in the crowd and that in itself was more exciting than any of the announcements were. Such a rare occurance these days. The City of Angels was hardly living up to it’s name of late.

 

Or even in days past, he thought with a barely hidden grimace.

 

It was becoming harder and harder to draw people in to a church in this age of bars, clubs and casinos. They had effectively stolen most of his flock from under his nose in the five short years he’d been in Saint Catherine’s. As charismatic and charming as he was it was still difficult to compete with the call of alcohol and money.

 

But for now at least, he could rest a little easier.

 

“Now, we shall open our service with hymn number seventy six, ‘ _How Great Thou Art_ ’,” he set the announcement cards next to his bible, tucking them away for later. “If you could all stand please,” he implored with a casual smile and off to his side, the boys choir from Saint Mary’s shuffled their pages and straightened from where they’d all probably been whispering about whatever it was teenage boys whispered about these days.

 

Probably best not to dwell on _that_ too much, he suppressed a smile.

 

Behind him, the organ started up with a mighty C note and Lucifer tried his best not to cringe at the great, groaning wheeze of the pipes. It echoed hauntingly off of the walls in a way he’d never been keen on- even when he’d started coming here from his own free will. He’d never been one for organs. He was far more inclined towards the piano and found the two almost incomparable in sound.

 

But still, he suffered through the weekly ear wrenching hymns for his parishioners.

 

It was the least he could do, after all. He sang along with an almost automated feeling. He knew the words off by heart. While he hit all the cues correctly and listened to the people who also came here every week miss them all, he took some time and surveyed a few of the newer members that he’d spotted earlier.

 

They were indeed few and far between but at least they were __there.__  That’s what counted.

 

In the third row, a young couple and their son stood, belting out the music. The boy couldn’t have been more then eight and didn’t know a single word but he was mouthing whatever he could catch up on anyway.

 

That _did_ make him smile. It reminded him vividly of mouthing along to words he could barely comprehend- avoiding the knowing, amused eyes of his mother when he could have been little more than five or six. The Church of England was all about their hymns.

 

As a boy he’d hated church with a barely hidden passion- loudly protesting when his parents dragged him along with his brothers and sisters in tow.

 

__They__ had been committed beyond belief and he’d never, ever understood the blind devotion. Even now he had trouble with their level of faith.

 

It was just so… all encompassing.

 

Hence the name, he thought dryly. Irony was certainly something he enjoyed but being ordained as Father Lucifer Morningstar to the surprise of anyone he’d ever introduced himself to- was slightly too much even for him.

 

He went back to surveying the church in front of him, drawing himself out of any memories that might be a little too painful. The first, second and third rows were full as they normally were.

 

They held all of his more devoted members.

 

Older people with their grown up children who probably came more out of habit than anything else. He couldn’t really blame them. It was hardly an ideal way to spend a Sunday morning, even to him. He’d really enjoy a lie in, one of these Sunday’s.

 

Fat chance.

 

If he was entirely honest with himself though, he was actually looking for someone _ _else__ among the crowd. To his disappointment, he hadn’t seen her enter this morning as he usually did- but then again he had been a little late. His eyes darted around for a few moments longer, scanning every face and being drawn to every wisp of blonde out of the corner of his eye.

 

He got further and further away from the packed faces at the front and it was only when he was almost giving up hope that a beam of sunlight caught someone sitting at the very back.

 

Of course, he bit back a smile again. Where else would she ever sit?

 

There, far away in the very corner of the last row- far enough away that he almost had to squint to make out her uncomfortable expression- was that _woman_.

 

That bloody anomaly that had been at the back of his thoughts now for weeks- as much as it pained him to admit such a thing in the house of God no less. But he couldn’t lie, not even to himself.

 

She was always on his mind, in some way or another.

 

The woman who looked like she utterly despised every single second of every single service and yet who came on Sunday’s anyway without fail. Who sat, much to his dismay, on the back pew and as far away from other people as possible. She’d never interacted with anyone else here as far as he could tell.

 

Granted, he was sure that the other people there gave her a wide berth anyway. She didn’t seem like the most approachable woman in the world, despite how strikingly beautiful she was. He caught himself before his thoughts drifted any further and frowned.

 

That was dangerous territory, he reprimanded himself.

 

He’d been a little too lenient with his own thoughts lately. Over thinking parts of the Bible that he normally would have found comforting. Being irritable at the thought of spending more time with people who simply wanted an easy answer to difficult questions.

 

Allowing himself to ponder on the more feminine aspects of the woman who was quickly becoming an enigma in his Sunday schedule.

 

He really did need to start taking more time to pray for himself and clear his mind of a few of his __own__ worries.  

 

He’d met her only once before and it had been purely by chance.

 

He’d been in a hurry, fumbling with papers and not paying even a modicum of attention to where he was going. It was inevitable that he would bump into someone. But of all the people in the world, he’d bumped into __her.__  They’d been on the street outside the church and she’d sworn at the sudden intrusion of her personal space.

 

He’d been apologetic but she’d brushed it all aside with a staunch irritation, eyeing his dog collar with what he could only imagine was open disdain. Her nose had wrinkled and she’d recoiled from it like she’d been burned.

 

That was enough to draw his interest alone.

 

While it was hardly unusual for him to be met with such a reaction, he’d never seen one quite so… open. Yes, not everyone in the world was religious and it made countless people uncomfortable to some degree. Still, the sheer volume of disgust in her expression had him taking a step backwards with his arms raised in some vain attempt to get her to relax.

 

His distance must have worked at least a little because she’d finally drawn her gaze up to his after a few long moments of awkward, tense silence.

 

Those big blue eyes had looked at him with such an intensity that much to his surprise and overt shame, heat had licked low in his stomach and he could hardly recall the moment when her own expression had changed from horror to something akin to desire. At least, he’d thought so at the time. He was probably mistaken but in that second it had been enough to startle him out of his stillness.

 

He’d held her gaze for only a few more seconds but he’d found himself far too flustered to speak again and instead he’d made his excuses and retreated up the steps of the church and into the safety of his sanctuary.

 

He’d changed into his robes, prayed, over thought the traitorous feelings of his own biology and then gone about his day with the notion that whatever _that_ had been, at least it was over now.

 

Evidently not.

 

After that day, without fail, she was there every Sunday.

 

Staring at him with those sinfully gorgeous blue eyes, curious but wary at the same time; and yet probably not even hearing one word he said during each service she attended.

 

So call him intrigued. Call him curious. Because he _was._ There was something about her that made him uneasy on a chemical level. Like she was dangerous on a plane that he couldn’t even begin to understand.

 

But it was just like him to find something too, that called him to go and speak to her anyway.

 

He realized that he’d been staring at her for the entire time he’d been singing and much to his dismay, he saw that she was indeed staring right back. What kind of creepy impression was he giving off, he scolded himself and dragged his gaze over slightly to the back wall.

 

It only took seconds for it to be pulled back and this time she met his gaze with a curiosity of her own. For a minute he was back outside the Church with heat pricking low in his belly and those bloody __eyes__  of hers drilling deep into his very soul- searching and probing for answers he didn’t know he could give.

 

Feeling blood rise quickly on his cheeks, Lucifer broke their staring match to look down at the Bible- sitting almost accusingly in front of him as if it wanted to ask why he was thinking about a woman and not about a God whom he’d made a solemn vow to.

 

He swallowed hard, the song ended and when he looked up again, she was gone.

 

-

 

It smelled like smoke with the barest hint of weed in the Money Cat tonight.

 

At one small round table on the balcony overlooking a seedy little stage, two women sat nursing drinks and speaking softly. If anyone overheard them, they weren’t brave enough to question some of the strange things they were saying.

 

Hell was mentioned a lot. It was enough to afford them a wide berth because no-one wanted to get involved with the crazy chicks in the corner.

 

“Look, Chloe as much as it amuses me to see you getting so hot and bothered over some guy…” Mazikeen- proud demon from Hell- drawled over the rim of her drink. “There’s no way in Home I’m going to start going to a _church_  just to watch you fawn all over him.”

 

Despite how well her friend had integrated herself among the humans and had over time perhaps even come to view them as equals- it was their cultures that she’d known her to fall all over.

 

Not the actual humans themselves.

 

It was a rare occurance for Chloe to even acknowledge one when she didn’t need something from them- like papers, passports or even a fake last name. Even then, she was swift and to the point.

 

The bar crowd was waning now and the last few patrons were drawing out their final drinks for as long as they could, not eager to go back to whatever hole they’d crawled out of for the night.

 

Across from Mazikeen sat yet another Hell forged being. On a good day, Maze might have even called her a sister but those sentiments were better kept under wraps.

 

Chloe scowled under the rebuttal of her request and pushed her drink aside, blonde hair tossed carelessly over her shoulder and Maze braced herself for the fallout. As much as it would be hilarious to watch Chloe getting all dewy eyed over a fucking priest of all things- Maze was still going to give this one a hard pass.

 

“Okay, first of all Mazikeen,” Chloe said huffily and raised one finger, elbow banging on the wood of the table. “Let’s get one things straight. I do not _fawn_ over anybody- let alone a filthy little human.”

 

“The way you’re blushing says otherwise,” Maze muttered around the rim of her glass.

 

Chloe ignored her.

 

“Two, I’m not asking you to go to church,” she spat the word out like it would leave a bad taste in her mouth and at least that was something Mazikeen could sympathize with.

 

Churches were not exactly a welcoming place for a demon. Call her crazy but she could almost feel her skin itch whenever she was _near_ one. She had no idea how Chloe could force herself inside one nearly every weekend for the past month.

 

Ever since she’d laid eyes on that __man.__

__

Maze could only wonder in amazement at whatever appeal he seemed to hold for the younger demon.

 

When she’d rightly asked what the fuck she was thinking, Chloe was quick to tell her that it was simply the fact that he was beautiful that held sway with her. She wanted him and this was probably the easiest way to go about it.

 

But Maze was old. Older than old and certainly older than the little demon across the table from her. She could see. No self-respecting demon would or even could force themselves into a church as much as she did simply for a pair of pretty eyes and Chloe playing the long game was utter bullshit.

 

She was far too impatient for such petty things. If she wanted something, she could have it in under ten seconds. All she had to do was bat those long eyelashes and men and women fell over themselves to give it to her.

 

She doubted this man of God would be so different. He was only human after all. Something uncomfortable settled in the pit of Maze’s stomach when that phrase crossed her mind.

 

Chloe was still talking and Mazikeen zoned back in.

 

“I’m just asking you to go and look at him. There’s something about him that I can’t help but be…” she dug her nails into the wood and hissed in an almost disgusted voice, “Drawn to. I need to know if there’s something you can sense but I can’t. I need to know if there’s something wrong with me!” her voice was nearing hysterics and Maze reached across the gap to grip her wrist. Chloe stopped abruptly, ignoring the curious gazes of the late dwellers by the bar.

 

“I shouldn’t be feeling this way,” she finally said sullenly.

 

“Maybe you just need to bang the guy and get it over with,” Maze shrugged. That was a safe option and right now, the only card that Maze was holding that could possibly get her comrade out of this strange obsession.

 

It was clear that Chloe disagreed when she groaned and rested her forehead on the sticky table.

 

Maze frowned.

 

“That’s easy for you to say, Maze. Most humans don’t give a crap about religion,” she explained miserably. “They look at you, see what they desire and they’re powerless to resist and usually…” Chloe fiddled with a coaster. “Usually that’s okay. Because I usually don’t care if they actually want someone else more because I don’t really want them in the first place.”

 

“Then I meet a guy who I finally want to fuck the brains out of and realise that I have to compete with __Him__  before I’m even out of the gate. I can’t compete with _God_ , Maze!”

 

The sudden confession that her demon brethren was experiencing something akin to feelings for a human was… disconcerting to say the least. This was apparently a human that Chloe was so drawn to that she couldn’t _not_ pursue him, even in the face of something far bigger than herself.

 

The man had devoted his life to God and of all the people for her to finally want in the world, it was someone she now had to struggle for. Without the confidence that she could actually win.

 

Damn.

 

Mazikeen wasn’t usually one to meddle in the lives of other demons, especially when it came so dangerously close to bordering on human emotions. They could do as they pleased for all she cared. But this little demon in particular had pulled at something deep within her from the moment of her creation.

 

So, much to her chagrin she felt the need to at least impart some words of caution onto her.

 

“Look, do what you will kid,” Maze sniffed, tongue pressing into the side of her cheek at the unrelenting miserable look on Chloe’s face. “Try and seduce him. Show him a good time and don’t think too much about it, if you think you can handle that.”

 

From the look on Chloe’s face, Maze didn’t think she could stop at just ‘a good time’. That thought alone was probably terrifying her.

 

“But just remember,” her voice turned soft, something oddly somber in her tone that made Chloe wonder just what kind of experience that her oldest friend was reliving at that very moment.

 

“You can’t keep him forever.”

 

The words hung heavy between them until the bar closed.

 

-

 

Most of his mornings consisted of the same thing.

 

He would wake at six thirty on the dot, shower, dress and eat breakfast. Lucifer was always out of the house by seven forty five for the fifteen minute walk to St Catherine’s. It was only a few blocks away and he enjoyed the crispness of the morning air- especially in the springtime.

 

He could always count on at least a few people already in the church before him. He took confession twice a day- when he arrived and before he left and usually the same crowd were waiting to take their daily dose of ‘God’s forgiveness’. It didn’t really matter that there was a dark wall and grating separating them anymore.

 

He knew all of their voices off by heart.

 

Mrs. Cathy Feldman, who was _still_ having an affair and assumed that confessing her sins, taking her penance and then promising that she’d break it off would suffice once a morning- then skipped along on her merry way to meet her lover in a cafe down the block.

 

A man he knew only as Alf, who insisted on confessing every single sin (or what he felt was a sin anyway) of the day and who Lucifer always kept for last because he took the most time.

 

Mr. Gary Stoke, a business man who was embezzling money from his company to pay off his gambling debts.

 

Adulterers, gamblers, liars.

 

Oh, he talked to them all. Every morning and night without fail for the last five years. He couldn’t help but feel his own shoulders heavy sometimes with the weight of their sins and all too soon, he found himself on the stone steps of the church ready to face them all once more.

 

Heaving the heavy wooden doors aside he stepped in- leaving one ajar to let people know that they were indeed open and to air the place of it’s overnight mustiness.

 

He made his way through the vestibule and into the sanctuary without stopping.

 

Sure enough, along one side the usual culprits stood gathered around the confessional waiting for him as though he was going to right all the wrongs in their lives just by giving them a few Hail Mary’s and telling them all was technically forgiven in the eyes of the Lord.

 

Just a normal morning.

 

Except…

 

Colour Lucifer all shades of surprised when he noticed a blonde head reclining in her usual seat in the very back row. Long, wavy locks glowed in the soft light of the stained glass windows and the colours cast over her made her seem almost radiant. He swallowed hard and promptly attempted to ignore the traitorous, excited thundering of his heart against his ribs.

 

Just what in the world was she doing here?

 

She’d broken the routine and it was making him all kinds of nervous. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to speak to her, but she seemed so unapproachable when she was in here. Maybe it was the stiffness of her spine or the way she avoided touching anything more than the seat she sat in. It was clear that she despised the place and yet, here she was. Again.

 

Or maybe it was something in the way she’d looked at him the other day. With curiosity and some other, forbidden thing that gleamed so obviously in her gaze.

 

She didn’t turn around at any point in his journey from the coat hooks by the doors and he was mildly relieved that at least he could approach her in his own time; and if he took a few moments longer than he usually would to straighten himself out and make himself look presentable- well.

 

That was strictly between him and God.

 

_Honestly_ , he really shouldn’t be clamming up this much at the thought of speaking to her. His palms were damp and his heart was racing and for the life of him he couldn’t understand why. There were plenty of beautiful women who had attended his services through the years- who had flirted with him in the hopes that he might respond.

 

She hadn’t even said a word to him yet and here he was acting like a schoolboy on his first date.

 

It was her eyes, Lucifer decided as he took a painfully long time throwing on his cassock. Thankfully, his parishioners didn’t seem in a rush this morning and he could act like he was a sloth in priest’s clothing. Those eyes were dangerous and housed every temptation he’d spent years now avoiding.

 

And they were bloody gorgeous.

 

Lucifer used to pride himself on how charming he was. Back when he’d been a cocky twenty-something and all he’d had to do was flash a smile and a bit of his accent to have men and women swooning at his feet. Not the proudest few years of his life, he thought with a barely restrained grimace.

 

That had been before the __funeral__  and before he’d thought of turning to something other than drugs and alcohol to depend on.

 

So many years ago now that instead of confidence, all he felt was rusty and out of touch and _nervous _.__

 

_You aren’t hitting on her, you dolt,_  he scolded himself as he slowly approached the back of her head. _Just talk to the woman. You might even like it._

__

So he slid into the seat next to her with no more preamble and for a long anxious moment, the air in the church stilled enough that he couldn’t even hear the distant whispered conversations of the people waiting.

 

It was silent.

 

Through the thick black material of the cassock he wore- even through his shirt- he could feel the heat radiating from her. She was even more stunning up close. High, regal cheekbones and luscious blonde hair that bounced in soft waves over her shoulders. Long, dark eyelashes that framed the very things he was fearing she’d turn on him any second.

 

Then all of a sudden, those striking baby blues were on him and it was like he’d forgotten how to breathe.

 

_God in Heaven help him…_

 

“I-,” he choked out, desperately wishing he’d bought something over to hold in his hands. He wanted to shift and squirm under her gaze and he longed for something to fidget with. What on earth was his problem today? When he’d woken up, he’d been Lucifer Morningstar- slightly fed up priest and man of God. Right now, he was Lucifer Morningstar- bumbling, nervous idiot.

 

He could feel his cheeks growing hot and he just knew rightly that the tips of his ears were going pink.

 

Once again, all he could think was _bloody Hell._

 

Her eyes seemed to be scanning his features and it was only when he saw her gaze flicker to his reddening ears that the wariness in them vanished and was replaced by a sort of distant amusement. The corners of her full pink lips quirked in the barest hint of a smile.

 

Wonderful, he cringed. He really was making an absolute tit out of himself.

 

_Not that you should care,_  a scornful voice in his head reminded him. _Have some respect for yourself man. You’re a priest in a church. You aren’t picking up some woman in a bar. What would God say?_

 

The thought sobered him.

 

He was acting like some love struck fool over a pretty face and he should really, really be beyond such things now. Sins of the flesh were something in his past. They had no rightful place in his future. So he pushed any feelings of awe firmly aside.

 

“I’d like to say how sorry I am about running into you that day outside the church,” Lucifer cleared his throat, attempting to regain at least a little of his dignity. “I ran off so quickly and without much apology. It was rude of me,” he said apologetically, tilting his head to the side to block out the glare of the sunlight in his eyes.

 

Her tongue poked out suddenly, wetting her bottom lip and Lucifer called upon every single prayer he’d learned about restraint in the past the get him through that moment.

 

Surely this had to be some kind of test.

 

A little on the cruel side if it was, if you asked him; he eyed the ceiling grumpily.

 

She hadn’t spoken during the entire awkward encounter and Lucifer probed the inside of his cheek with his tongue- searching for something else to say that wouldn’t come across as needy or pushy.

 

“I’m just so glad it didn’t put you off joining the church. We’re certainly happy to have you.”

 

There must have been something amusing about that because she _smiled_  then and even though it was clearly more of a disagreeing smirk than a real smile, Lucifer felt like he’d lost his ability to exist.

 

It was like all of the air in the room was in a vacuum and despite his brain telling him off very sternly in a voice that sounded far too much like his __dad__  for his liking- he found himself desperately needing to see her do it again.

 

He was so engrossed in his thoughts that when she finally spoke, he almost jumped in surprise.

 

“Oh, I doubt that very much,” she replied dryly, and when he followed her eye line it came to rest of the somber depiction of the Crucifixion that hung above the altar. He didn’t feel entirely comfortable looking at the eyes of his Lord while he sat next to a woman he was having… not so pure thoughts about.

 

So he tore his eyes away and instead focused on the fact that she did indeed speak after all.

 

“I’ve never been into the whole church scene,” she finished with a frown.

 

“So you _do_  speak!” he said, his eyes bright with a boyish glee and she turned back to look at him again- only to see that he was clearly teasing her. She licked her bottom lip and Lucifer could have sworn that she relaxed just the slightest bit. “I was beginning to worry that my babbling was getting me nowhere.”

 

“I thought I should stop you before you gave me a headache,” she said lightly, pushing her hair from her face where it had fallen. Lucifer felt his jaw clench unwittingly and quickly looked away. “Or hurt yourself. Do you talk to all of the guests in your church like that? Or only the ones you want to get rid of?”

 

Lucifer felt his old, easy charm slip back in place before he could stop it.

 

“Oh not at _all._ You have to have a certain something before you can hear these sultry British tones. Maybe you’re just one of the lucky ones.”

 

He could almost feel the scornful glare of God from here because that last sentence had almost bordered on flirting and he cursed his inability to resist a little bit of back and forth. She didn’t seem to hold the same qualms though because her eyes __lit up__ with barely suppressed glee at his quick response.

 

“I’ve believe I’ve neglected to introduce myself,” he took the opportunity to segue into the more innocent area of an introduction. He held out his hand almost tentatively. “Father Lucifer Morningstar, at your disposal.”

 

She looked like a deer caught in headlights.

 

If he hadn’t seen the same reaction to his name everywhere he went before then he might have taken offence at her gaping shock.

 

Although… he couldn’t help but think that there was something off to the way her whole body seemed to shift just that little bit further away from his own as if he was going to say something accusatory of her.

 

“You- You’re name is _Lucifer?_ ” she balked a little too loudly for his liking and he slowly lowered the hand she clearly wasn’t about to take.

 

A few of the people still waiting for him turned their heads towards the source of the noise. He could have rolled his eyes.

 

Nosy buggers.

 

Still, he recovered quickly and smiled at her all the same and shifted backwards a bit to give her more space. He couldn’t really blame her for her reaction. It __was__ insane.

 

“A _priest_  called Lucifer? You have to be shitting me,” she said in disbelief, half whispering the last part as her eyes flickered to the ceiling briefly.

 

“One of the setbacks of having religious parents I’m afraid,” he answered drily. “I drew the short straw.”

 

There was a lightness in his tone that belied the pain of thinking about his brothers and sisters but he shook it off in favour of teasing her.

 

“I could have been a Tom or a Sam,” he said, pretending to look melancholy at the loss of a normal name. “But then I suppose I’d miss out on all the reactions of the other priests. Nothing says man of the cloth like priests recoiling in horror like you’re going to personally take them to Hell.”

 

Much to his pleasure, she chortled wickedly.

 

“Where does all this happen? At the Priest Convention?”

 

Running his tongue over his teeth, Lucifer tried his best to ignore the warm intoxicating sensation that tugged at him when she laughed.

 

“Exactly. It’s where we all gather on a Tuesday night to gamble with the collection money and drink the communion wine.”

 

Her eyes sparkled with amusement and it was clear that he wouldn’t get anywhere with kind words. She was clearly here for the sarcasm and wit- something he used to have in droves. Sure, it had been a while but he was positive he could still keep up if the situation called for it.

 

The introduction seemed to have calmed her usual shiftiness at long last. She no longer looked like she was about to bolt and her shoulders had dropped from where she’d been holding them stiffly. She looked much more approachable like this, he thought. Smiling and laughing like she thought he was a charmer and not an awkward priest.

 

He found himself looking at her outstretched hand- in much the same way he’d held out his own minutes before.

 

Without hesitation, Lucifer slid his palm against hers, not wasting the opportunity.

 

Her hand was warm- almost too warm but it was pleasant none the less and much to his shame, he found he couldn’t stop looking at the way his hand dwarfed hers. She was so small compared to him and something primal in the back of his mind hummed in satisfaction at the thought.

 

He buried it quickly.

 

“I’m Chloe,” she offered and he inhaled a breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding.

 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Chloe.”

 

“You too,” she paused for a second too long before meeting his eye. “Father Morningstar.”

 

“Lucifer,” he corrected, hating how breathless he sounded.

 

“ _Lucifer_ then.”

 

There really weren’t enough Hail Mary’s in the world, he thought with rising mortification, to make up for the way his whole traitorous body reacted when she said his name like that.

 

-

 

The moment Chloe was around the corner and out of sight of the church doors, she leaned against the stone side of the building and pressed her face into her hands and cursed and damned everything from there to Hell and back.

 

All he’d had to do was be _boring _.__ Be pious and aloof like every other priest she’d had the displeasure of meeting so it could put her off this stupid fucking fascination she had with him.

 

Clearly that was too much to ask.

 

__No__ , she almost whined to herself. He had to be _cute and funny_ instead _ _.__

__

And his name was Lucifer.

 

She turned her glare towards the Heavens and swore up and down that if she ever got up there, she was putting one of her blades through that Holy fucker’s eye.

 

_Irony indeed._

 

-

 

Thus began a tentative friendship between the unlikely pair.

 

A friendship that left Lucifer’s mind wandering farther and farther away from what he thought he knew every day. It terrified him that he could be so easily swayed into thinking about her like he did but it felt so… natural. Like she’d been there all his life.

 

Chloe had been waiting for him every morning when he arrived after their chat. She would talk to him about stupid things like the weather and what he was doing with his day before hightailing it out of there just before he started confession.

 

It was… nice, he allowed himself to admit.

 

Despite what he’d told her about other priests, there wasn’t a lot of room in his life for real people. His relationship with God seemed to take up so much of his time that he’d neglected any aspects of a social life, perhaps in a last ditch effort to distance himself from his old ways.

 

Or maybe he’d just found that talking to real flesh and blood people was more of a chore now than talking to someone invisible.

 

So it came as a surprise that she seemed to just _be_ there one day and that he was __fine__ with it. Even enjoyed it, if he was honest. She was interesting and funny and she listened in a way that he’d never had anyone listen to him before.

 

His dad had certainly never listened to him like that, nor had any of the less than reputable people he’d ever associated with in his twenties.

 

It had taken her a long while though, to stop running off before he had a chance to ask her about herself. She was guarded, more so than him it seemed because even with his reassurances that she could tell him anything- she still kept so much to herself. It made him wonder what kind of past she was hiding and if it was anything like his own.

 

Still, time passed and she stayed longer and longer every day.

 

It was a normal part of his day now to see her there every morning and to say ‘ _see you tomorrow_ ’ at sometime around lunchtime. To watch her smile at him like she was in on some hilarious inside joke whenever he mentioned Heaven or Hell.

 

To have her wink at him with such boldness and open flirtation that he had to busy himself for hours afterwards with mundane tasks to keep his mind off of her.

 

She was oftentimes crass and unapologetically outgoing and so overtly confident that it left him wishing he could be like that again. Like he didn’t have the weight of a thousand other people on his shoulders.

 

But still.

 

There was something so easy between them that he didn’t mind that she swore loudly in front of the other parishioners or professed up and down that she’d rather be boiled alive than go to Heaven. He shouldn’t have found all these things endearing at all but God save him, he did.

 

So instead of letting her rush off one morning, he asked her if she wanted to stay and help him in the vestry. The way she hopped off of the back of the pew that she’d been perched on, leather boots clicking loudly on the wooden floor-

 

Well.

 

She swept past him, dragging her fingertips over his chest and had looked him up and down like she was going to eat him and said, “I thought you’d never ask, _Father_.”

 

It was the first time he’d felt his cock twitch like that in five years and in the middle of his buggering church no less. All he could do was send a thousand apologies up to God and then have the gall to _thank_  Him for the invention of loose robes.

 

He’d felt a little disgraceful after that incident and he’d made sure to keep some distance between himself and Chloe whenever they were alone together.

 

He didn’t think he could survive another touch to his chest like that.

 

With that incident aside, the next three months were the nicest he’d had in years.

 

She began to sit closer during Sunday Mass- although still never participating. He didn’t mind. Especially now that she would stay behind afterwards for coffee and to help him clear up the mess left behind by lazy parishioners.

 

He noted several times the disapproving stares of the old women that mingled by the doors with their coats.

 

Eyeing her- eyeing _him_ like they were accusing them of something unspoken.

 

Lucifer wasn’t particularly bothered by it. Let them think as they would. People loved to gossip and even God Himself was powerless to stop them.

 

He didn’t think here was anything wrong in seeking friendship to keep his life interesting. All he had to do was keep his traitorous thoughts in check and stray far away from anything that would resemble inappropriate contact. It should have been an easy endeavor.

 

Sadly, he forgot about one little thing.

 

Chloe would find every excuse possible to touch him.

 

Be it brushing his arm with her fingertips to get his attention or plucking a stray hair from his shirt or even fiddling with the buttons on his shirt cuff on a few occasions.

 

That one had been his first undoing.

 

She’d sat down next to him while he was writing, rolling the button between her thumb and forefinger absentmindedly. When he’d looked up to see what she was doing, his gut had lurched in the most pleasant way because she was looking at him from under those long lashes and biting her bottom lip as though she was concentrating deeply on something.

 

How was he supposed to contend with that?

 

He was only a __man__.

__

For the first time in years, Lucifer had gone home, eased himself into a hot shower and allowed his treacherous mind to drift to her. He’d tried so hard to talk himself out of it, talk himself away from impure thoughts about her and what she did to him.

 

What she _could_ do to him.

 

But it was of no use because God help him he was __weak__  for her.

 

He’d taken himself in hand for the first time in what seemed like forever. The only thing he could think about was Chloe.

 

Chloe Chloe, Chloe, _Chloe _.__

__

He’d come over his own fist with her name on his lips, his forehead pressed against the cold tiles of the shower wall and the water running cold. He’d shaken from the intensity of his orgasm and from the sudden overwhelming feeling of _shame_  that engulfed him the second he came down from his high.

 

He could barely look at her for days after that, humiliated by his body’s betrayal and that he’d disrespected her so much without her knowledge.

 

He prayed for forgiveness whenever he had a spare moment and asked for penance several times over at another church far away from his. Lucifer was well aware that it was just a natural reaction to having the attention of a beautiful woman on him but he _also_  knew he should have been strong enough to ignore it.

 

It had taken him a while to come to terms with what he’d done and to build up the nerve to look her in the eye again without blushing.

 

But it was almost like she bloody knew what he’d done anyway and it just seemed to make her gravitate even closer to him like a magnet.

 

And despite his disgust at his own actions, he did nothing to discourage her.

 

In fact, he reveled in her attention.

 

In the way she would drink in his every word and in the way she could enrapture him with a laugh. How she could get him to follow her anywhere simply by tugging on his shirt sleeve.

 

He didn’t pull away because it was Chloe; and maybe, just maybe he just didn’t _want to _.__

__

__-_ _

 

It was a Wednesday morning, nearing eleven and they were lounging in the kitchen extension of the vestry. Not an uncommon occurance of late. Lucifer knew he had nowhere to be and it seemed that Chloe wasn’t in any particular hurry today either.

 

Hence a lazy midday coffee.

 

The radio was playing easy listening in the background and Chloe was leaning against the island, her coffee mug between her hands. She brought it forward and inhaled the fragrant steam, her eyes fluttering closed and a satisfied sigh escaping her lips.

 

Lucifer watched her from under his eyelashes, pretending to highlight Bible passages. He was doing an abysmal job of it but she either didn’t notice or (more than likely) she did but just found him too sweet to say anything.

 

Usually he was much better at hiding the appreciation in his gaze.

 

But today, she was standing right in front of the large bay window that overlooked the church grounds. The sunlight loved her, it really did. The way it softened her features and her curves. The way it framed her like she was actually bloody Heaven sent.

 

The California sun made her look almost holy.

 

His pulse spiked.

 

Something must have told her that he was staring at her though, because her eyes flicked up from her mug and met his. He didn’t really expect the gentle way her lips curved upwards- almost as though she was being shy. He could have laughed then because Chloe was anything but shy.

 

She cleared her throat a second later and the moment was broken.

 

Lucifer worried the tip of his tongue between his teeth, finding it hard to tear his gaze away. She motioned towards the radio, where the beginnings of Bring It On Home to Me were drifting out into the warm air of the kitchen.

 

“Can’t say I’ve ever appreciated this kind of music before,” she said and he wondered if this was her way of letting him off easy and ignoring the staring contest.

 

He took the opportunity with a look of gratitude.

 

“You can’t tell me you’ve never listened to Sam Cooke?”

 

She shook her head, dipping it so she could look at him almost out of the corner of her eye. He cocked his head in confusion.

 

“Never danced to it either,” she said, voice soft.

 

Oh. _Oh._

__

It was an invitation then.

 

An invitation that was dangerous to take. To be that close to her, to have her body against his. It would be playing with a fire so hot that being burned was inevitable.

 

But before he could even debate with himself on the pros and cons any longer, his body betrayed him for the second time in the last five years. Lucifer found himself stepping around the island almost on autopilot with only one singular thought circling in his head- _dance with Chloe._

 

Their gazes stayed locked and it was suddenly impossible to stop himself from leaping head first into that sea of stormy blue.

 

He plucked her coffee cup out of her hands, setting it to one side on the counter. Turning back to her, one hand slid intimately against hers- palm to palm and he raised their joined hands into the air beside them.

 

Her free hand found his shoulder, branding his skin underneath his shirt. She squeezed softly and for a moment that left him swallowing hard, her eyes dropped to his lips. She looked away just as quickly but he’d seen it all the same.

 

_Oh_ , he thought without a hint of regret. _I’m in a lot of trouble._

 

Lucifer knew that later on, when he was berating himself in his apartment for this entire display, that he’d be deeply embarrassed over just how much his hand shook when he dropped it to her waist.

 

The softness of her body when she stepped into his personal space was making him heady and he was thankful for the surety in which she held herself. At least one of them could hold themselves with a little dignity.

 

With a gentle tug, he began to sway her around the cramped little kitchen- if for nothing but to take his mind away from just how _close_ she was. It could hardly be called dancing, this shifting from foot to foot while their eyes roamed each other faces. Her stomach brushed his and he suddenly found that she’d inched into his personal space even more.

 

_“I’ll give you jewelry,_

_And money too._

_That ain’t all,_

_That ain’t all I’d do for you!”_

__

He could feel her breath on his cheek as she leaned forward and for a moment, he was frozen in limbo. What was he supposed to do if she kissed him!? He thought, utterly terrified that his vows and his faith were about to be tested in a way that he wasn’t sure he could resist.

 

But she simply rested her chin on his shoulder.

 

Lucifer didn’t know if that feeling in his gut was disappointment or relief.

 

_“You know I’ll always,_

_Be your slave._

_‘Til I’m buried,_

_Buried in my grave!_

_Oh honey, bring it to me,_

_Bring your sweet lovin’,_

_Bring it on home to me.”_

 

She smelled of cinnamon, he realized all at once. His breath left him in a stuttering jolt and she shifted in his embrace.

 

“Hey, are you okay?” Chloe’s voice startled him out of his quickly darkening thoughts and he huffed out a laugh at being so easily distracted.

 

He didn’t know what to tell her.

 

_No? No, I’m terrible and wicked and I shouldn’t be thinking about you like I am? The very thought of you and I’m already three Hail Mary’s down with no sign of stopping? I should be able to resist the temptation but I think about you more than I think about the God I gave my life to?_

 

_That it just felt so right that it couldn’t_ possibly _be wrong._

 

He said none of these things. Instead, all he said after a long moment was, “I’m wonderful.”

 

His voice didn’t feel like his own. It was lower, husky almost. But she beamed at him when he answered and it was like the moon coming out from behind the clouds on the darkest of dark nights.

 

There was no helping him now, he decided.

 

“Good,” she murmured, her answer almost drowned out by the music.

 

Still they swayed and the music was intoxicating. She let go of his hand and drew her other from his shoulder so she could rest both arms around his neck instead. It tipped her forward more and in the blink of an eye, her whole body was pressed into his own.

 

He could do nothing but wrap his arms around her, his trembling palms pressing against her back. His hands splayed so wide on her small frame that they practically covered her entire back and he could not, _would not_ think about how big they’d look in comparison to the rest of her.

 

Instead, he thought about how she was looking up at him- like he’d hung the stars up above.

 

The collar around his neck suddenly felt so tight that he could barely breathe.

 

-

 

“So,” Mazikeen greeted her with a shit-eating smile. “How’s that human of yours? Have you screwed him five ways to Sunday yet?”

 

When she got no answer other than an alarmed look, Maze tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes.

 

Chloe's friend and fellow Hell spawn was currently resting her shoulder against front door of her apartment, arms crossed over her chest and Chloe couldn’t help but flinch a little bit. She really hadn’t been expecting, nor desiring company today. She’d just left Lucifer after whatever that had been the in the kitchen.

 

She’d danced before a thousand times.

 

But… but never quite like that.

 

When Chloe avoided her gaze and instead went about unlocking her front door, Maze knew something was up. She assumed that she’d be all about how she’d conquered her thing with the priest. Loved him, left him and had moved on like Maze had not so subtly instructed.

 

Mazikeen’s nostrils flared when Chloe brushed past her and just like that she _knew _.__ She didn’t even need to ask where she’d been. The smell of the divine clung to her clothes and Maze wrinkled her nose, stepping out of the way and then rounding to follow her friend inside- curiosity rising.

 

“No, I haven’t,” she replied at last.

 

That did nothing to sate Maze’s thirst for gossip though and she raised an eyebrow in response. Chloe exhaled through her nose. Why was nothing ever easy with someone she considered, not only her oldest friend- but her sister in arms as well? Why couldn’t she just leave well enough alone and not ask all of the questions that she herself had been studiously avoiding?

 

Like why she could _not_ stop visiting that man. Like why just the way he looked at her made her feel like she was being unmade on the spot. Why every glance from him had her acting like a human schoolgirl with her first crush.

 

All of these questions spiraled in her head sickeningly fast as she set the groceries she’d picked up on the way home on the work top. 

 

“You’re going there every day now-” Maze said in an almost accusatory tone, “And you’re telling me that you aren’t fucking him on every single bit of furniture in the place?”

 

Chloe’s body hummed with pleasure at the very thought.

 

There was many a night of late that she’d spent in her bed with her own hand working furiously between her legs. She would conjure up every image of him that she could think of. On his back, on his knees, above her, rocking his hips and driving himself inside-

 

She shook herself out of her daze. She’d thought about it every single second of every single _day_ since he’d introduced himself. But she still held herself back. Respected a boundary that she wouldn’t have given a second thought about had it been anyone else.

 

At Chloe’s obvious avoidance of her gaze, Maze’s jaw dropped.

 

“Well colour me _fucked _.__ ”

 

“That’s not even the expression!” Chloe immediately corrected, hands going to her hair because the cat was well and truly out of the bag now. It was childish but she still glowered at Mazikeen and tried her best to distract her from the conclusion she was slowly but surely drawing.

 

She could see the cogs turning.

__

_Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick- ding!_

 

Mazikeen’s eyes went comically wide and she jabbed a finger at Chloe.

 

“You’re falling for a human!”

 

Chloe felt the colour drain from her cheeks as she was confronted with the words she’d been avoiding for weeks now.

 

“I am _not!_ ” she hissed in some awful last ditch effort to deny the obvious.

 

Snatching up a bottle of bourbon and pouring herself a shaky glass, she turned her back to Mazikeen as she attempted to find some semblance of normality. Nothing in her life was feeling particularly normal right now.

 

She’d been given free will. Allowed to come here to earth to chase whatever she desired. Her eyes fell closed and she rested her forehead against the bottom of the cabinet in front of her. She really hadn’t expected to desire a priest. Let alone a priest called Lucifer. That was just sickeningly poetic.

 

“I’m so, _so_  screwed, Maze” she said softly and after a drawn out silence in which she thought the other woman would never speak- Mazikeen finally moved away from the kitchen island.

 

The way her hand fell against her back felt almost sisterly. If demons __did__ familial relationships. Which they didn’t.

 

But still. At least Maze was trying.

 

“Are you _absolutely_ sure that you’re falling for him? I mean…” Maze sighed, grasping for any stray thought available. “If you haven’t had sex with him yet then it could just be frustration…” she trailed off under Chloe’s hard glare. “Or not. Okay,” she held her hands up.

 

“I… I can’t get him out of my head,” Chloe heard herself admitting, much to her chagrin. She could only hope that this didn’t find it’s way back to Hell somehow. She’d never live it down.

 

Maze, for once in her life, listened quietly to her fellow demon.

 

“The way he talks, he’s always so passionate about everything,” she said, her eyes slipping shut. His face was already being conjured in her mind. That lopsided grin that showed all of his teeth and made the corners of his eyes crinkle… “He has the best smile. It’s not like-” Chloe frowned, trying to find some way to explain it.

 

“It’s not like when a guy smiles at us in a club somewhere. When you know what he wants and its _not_ your sparkling conversation,” she said. Her brow furrowed. “When he smiles at me, it’s like he’s happy to see me, you know?” Mazikeen didn’t respond but Chloe continued anyway and she didn’t even feel her own smile slowly tugging at her lips. She was too engrossed in her description. “Like he’s been waiting forever and me walking in has made his day. I don’t think anyone has ever looked at me like that,” she breathed.

 

Maze twisted herself around and leaned heavily against the counter next to her.

 

Chloe could sense her disapproval and her fear. But there was something else in the air around them, forcing her head up to share a look with her companion.

 

When Chloe had arrived on earth, she’d intended to sample all of the things that they’d tormented the humans with down below. Drugs, sex, alcohol, food… The things that all those souls seemed to crave in the back of their minds- when the torture had become repetitive and they had time to think and to feel again for a moment.

 

Chloe had wondered about the appeal of such things and they hadn’t disappointed.

 

However, she had _not_ come with the intention of sampling the other things that the prisoners of Hell longed for. Those things that always made her step away in sheer disgust when they begged for them.

 

Feelings.

 

Emotions.

 

_Love _._ _

 

They clawed for it down there. Begged and cried out just to be touched and feel something, anything.

 

She’d always sneered at the very thought with utter unbridled disgust.

 

Then a big pair of brown doe eyes and a smile to die for and she was as pathetic as the rest of the saps in Hell. She wished she could hate herself for it. Wished she could hate _him_  for it. For stirring those feelings that brought with them nothing but pain and longing. Maybe now she could understand the souls a little better.

 

Been there, done that, got the fucking tee-shirt.

 

Maze licked her lips and slid the bottle of bourbon out from under her hand, lifting it to her lips and taking a long, silent swig.

 

“Look, I’m going to tell you something that I’ve never told anyone else,” she began tentatively, swiping a stray crumb from the worktop and onto the floor with her thumb. Colour Chloe intrigued by Mazikeen’s reluctant tone. She removed her head from it’s pitiful resting place on the cupboard door and swivelled it around to face Maze.

 

“Tell me what?” she drawled and narrowed her eyes.

 

Maze didn’t look at her, instead choosing a safe spot across the room. “I was sort of, maybe… in love with a human once,” she finished, her voice barely above a whisper.

 

Chloe stood, mouth agape.

 

Maze suddenly found the bottle of bourbon to be the most interesting thing on the planet as she picked at the label and pressed her tongue to the inside of her cheek. Still Chloe said nothing and the silence that drew between them was deafening.

 

It only was broken by Chloe clicking her fingers almost triumphantly.

 

“So that’s where you disappeared to all those years ago!” she huffed out a disbelieving laugh. Maze nodded, really not enjoying the look of glee on Chloe’s face.

 

“Look, don’t get too fucking excited, alright? It was a long, long time ago now,” she waved her hand dismissively but it did nothing to dispel the pain in her voice when she spoke. Chloe felt her triumph fade just a little in the face of what Mazikeen was clearly trying to explain. “It’s been decades, Chloe. But even now, it still rips into me when I think about her.”

 

And so the elephant in the room was finally addressed.

 

Love was all fine and dandy. That’s not what mattered. Demon. Human. Who cared, really in the grand scheme of things?

 

Mortality, on the other hand…

 

Chloe slumped against the counter, shoulders dropping hard. “That’s why you keep trying to warn me off,” she said and Maze nodded solemnly. It was… off. Seeing someone so out of tune with emotions and feelings suddenly display so many. Chloe felt discomfort ease over her like a blanket.

 

“I didn’t know, Maze. You never said anything to any of us.” Although probably for a good reason. There were less __open-minded__ demons in Hell than there were on earth. “You just disappeared for a few decades and then you were back again- punishing souls like you’d never been gone.”

 

Maze nodded solemnly and another inch of bourbon vanished.

 

“Linda was something else, she really was…” Maze laughed softly and seemed lost in a memory now. Chloe listened, enraptured. “She was _always_ telling me to talk about my damn feelings. She was so smart and funny and so kind to other people- it just baffled me, you know?” she turned her head to Chloe, who nodded in understanding. She did know. All too well. “Then one day, her hair wasn’t so blonde anymore. It took longer and longer for her to remember my name,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.

 

Chloe felt something lodge in her throat, even though she would be loathed to admit to it to anyone.

 

“Then I blinked... and she was gone.”

 

It was quiet in the kitchen for a good few minutes while both women silently gathered themselves after such a heavy confession.

 

Chloe spoke first, her voice searching.

 

“So you came back to Hell like nothing had ever happened.”

 

Maze nodded.

 

“I just wanted to forget that I’d ever been so weak for a human. Silly little fragile things,” she smiled then but it was deeply sad and Chloe felt her gut clench at the thought that this could be her in a few years time. A span so short to a demon but so long to a human. That one day she could be mourning a man she couldn’t follow.

 

“We aren’t supposed to feel anything for humans,” Chloe muttered, leaning against her friends shoulder for support. Mazikeen nodded.

 

“And yet here we are.”

 

“Do you ever regret it?” Chloe asked softly, both dreading and not dreading the answer.

 

Maze finished the last of the alcohol and didn’t answer for what felt like eternity. All that they could hear in the room was the ticking of the clock on the wall- seemingly taunting them. At last, Mazikeen spoke with a conviction that Chloe hadn’t heard from her in eons.

 

“No, I don’t. Not a single damn second of it.”

 

-

 

“So, I’ve been thinking.”

 

Lucifer looked up from the pile of bills he’d been rifling through and towards his companion, who sat across the counter. She had her hair down today and if that wasn’t enough to distract him all morning then the off-the-shoulder sweater, tank top and short shorts combination was certainly doing it.

 

Whoever had invented short shorts needed to either be shot, or made a Saint. He couldn’t decide which.

 

He couldn’t resist teasing her.

 

“Oh no, should I go and hide all of the bibles? Because your last idea of a book burning on the lawn wasn’t exactly family friendly,” he said, his eyes sparkling with mirth. Chloe scoffed, rounding the island to his side and thwacking his shoulder playfully.

 

“Shut up that was a brilliant idea. People _love_ bonfires.”

 

He found it hard to keep the grin off of his face, despite the lighthearted blasphemy.

 

“You don’t think it’s hard enough to get parishioners with a name like Lucifer?”

 

She shrugged.

 

“I _like_ your name. They should count themselves lucky that they have someone who puts up with their bullshit day in and day out,” she said with a sort of finality that made it hard to argue. He could feel the blush rising on his cheeks already.

 

“Flatterer,” he muttered, going back to the bills.

 

“ _Anyway_ , it wasn’t this abysmal place I was thinking about, thank you very much Father Funny,” she said, seating herself next to him and drawing his attention to her once more.

 

“Oh?” he asked, curious now.

 

“I was thinking that maybe we could, you know… do something later tonight,” she continued, a little quieter than before. Lucifer went very still, his mouth suddenly drier than dry despite the coffee that he’d sipped moments before. This was something he still shied away from despite their deepening friendship. Spending time with her in the church itself was one thing.

 

At least here he felt like he could keep a tighter rein on his emotions. Keep himself closer to God.

 

Outside, he wouldn’t have the luxury of scornful eyes peering down at him from every angle, keeping him in check.

 

Chloe wasn’t taking his silence well.

 

“Look, I just thought we could go for a drink or something. It’s not like I’m inviting you to a strip club Lucifer,” she frowned, playing with her coaster- a habit he’d learned she had when she was nervous. Which was hardly ever. Her eyebrows knitted together the longer the silence between them went on, he couldn’t help himself from thinking that she looked utterly bloody _adorable_  like that.

 

Eventually she’d had enough of the ear wrenching silence though and simply said, “Look, just forget I said any-”

 

“I’d love to!” he blurted out before she could finish and her eyes widened in surprise. Maybe she really hadn’t expected him to say yes.

 

A moment later and he was staring down the million watt smile that told him he was- _and God forgive his language_ \- utterly fucked. One hundred percent buggered with a side of screwed because if she was already looking at him like that now then what on earth would the evening bring for him?

 

“Are you serious?”

 

“Despite your insistence, it’s not _actually_  illegal for me to have fun,” he answered and she laughed.

 

He felt giddy.

 

He really did want to spend time with her outside of the church in spite of his fear of what might happen between them. He wanted a glimpse into her life because he wanted to keep being a part of it. Despite his feelings and the time they spent together, they still knew so little about one another.

 

The reason she’d started coming here, her past and why she hated religion so much, or where she came from or who she was outside of this place- these were all things he didn’t know yet that he wanted to.

 

More than anything.

 

“You won’t regret it Morningstar,” she winked and nudged him with her shoulder and that, it seemed, was that.

 

-

 

When she’d left for the day and they’d made their plans for him to pick her up at her apartment at seven that evening- Lucifer took a walk to the park down the block.

 

Maybe the air would clear his head. Then again, he knew full well that a little air wasn’t going to fix the dilemma he was currently experiencing.

 

He hadn’t felt this way about a woman since he was a teenager and even then, those had been the angst ridden emotions of a hormonal teenage boy.

 

Then his twenties had been spent with women who barely knew his name and much to his shame he couldn’t recall a single one of theirs either. Not his crowning achievement in life, really. Such dark times that blurred together in a rave of drugs and drink and hating, simply _hating_ his dad for everything he’d put him through.

 

For the beatings and the screaming and always being compared to his perfect brothers and sisters. For never being good enough for for him. He’d never understood why exactly. What he’d done to make his father hate him with such a passion. Enough to name him after the Devil himself.

 

The sun warmed his back as he walked, rounding the corner and making his way along the worn path towards his usual bench.

 

The cheerfulness of the day did nothing to brighten his mood as he dwelt on his family for the first time in years.

 

The twin scars his old man had put on his back- in some misguided attempt to please God- itched a little as they rubbed against his shirt. Another constant reminder of what he’d been through and of just why he’d turned to God in the first place.

 

When he’d at long last turned eighteen, Lucifer had sworn to himself that he would never become like his dad. Or his brothers, who were slowly but surely becoming mirror images of the man he hated so much. Mindless violent zealots who frightened others under the guise of ‘ _protecting them from sin_ ’.

 

Lucifer grimaced.

 

So, much like his namesake- he’d rebelled. Ran away from home and into the arms of the Los Angeles nightlife. The first place he’d ever felt welcome.

 

He forgot his name, forgot most of his _twenties_  for Christ’s sake.

 

Sitting down heavily on the bench at last, he let the sun wash over him and warm the ache from his bones. It was just the kind of day to finally ponder just what he wanted out of life.

 

The night of his twenty sixth birthday- already high on coke and half conscious in some hotel room, he’d gotten the call.

 

His dad was in fact, deader than dead. Micheal had informed him curtly down the phone and Lucifer hadn’t responded for a long time. He didn’t think that he’d been in shock really. Simply trying to come to terms with what he’d heard. What he’d longed to hear for years. Just as he’d heard his brother grunt out a goodbye, he’d asked ‘ _Did he suffer _?__ ’

 

Micheal had confirmed that the cancer had eaten away most of his pancreas.

 

He’d been in agony when he’d finally died- refusing painkillers under the guise of them being ‘the Devil’s work’. Lucifer hadn’t stopped the giddy laughter that had spilled from him- a high even better than cocaine washing over his body because he was finally, finally free at last.

 

Micheal had hung up and Lucifer hadn’t given a single fuck.

 

He’d ignored the funeral entirely- feeling the scars on his back burn at the mere thought of going. His mum had long gone back to England by then and he had no desire to subject himself to a day of pretending to care. He’d gotten black out drunk instead and honestly, even now, he knew that it had been the better choice.

 

Michael had called only once more after that, to callously inform him that he’d been written out of the will.

 

Lucifer had said nothing this time.

 

He’d hung up the phone and that was the last he’d seen of his family. Sometimes he mourned the loss of his siblings. Of his mother. She’d loved him just as she’d loved all her kids. Never treated him differently like they did. But she couldn’t protect him. Couldn’t protect herself.

 

Lucifer swallowed, blinking back tears and somewhere in the distance he could hear children playing.

 

He hadn’t gone back to a church until he was twenty seven. He’d felt tired, his body growing weary of the constant partying and the drugs that were making him sicker by the day. He’d expected to feel uncomfortable as he’s tentatively stepped inside but something- he still wasn’t sure what, had washed over him as he’d sat on that pew, listening to the preacher talk about love and acceptance.

 

He’d sat at the very back, he remembered suddenly- that brought a smile to his face. Very much like a certain someone he knew.

 

But that day was supposed to have been his salvation and he’d quickly offered his services to God. For all the use he could be.

 

It had probably saved his life.

 

Except now, he was thirty two… and he could feel that his life was still missing something. Wasn’t there supposed to be come kind of fulfilment, carrying out his duty to God? For a long time now, he’d found that bearing the weight of other people’s sin was becoming harder and harder.

 

He was lonely.

 

And the question’s that kept circling his mind, again and again were- _How on earth could wanting her be frowned upon? How could it be sinful? Did God not want him to be happy, after all this time? After all he’d given and suffered through?_

Chloe was… different, sure. She was brutally honest about everything. Despised religion with a barely contained passion. But despite all of her faults, she was still the purest creature he’d ever laid eyes on and there was nothing, _nothing_  about her that was worth calling ‘wrong’. Surely God didn’t want him to distance himself from her just to test his self-control?

 

The thought made him sick to his stomach.

 

That was… that was the sort of thing his father would have done.

 

_She’s the Devil and don’t you forget it boy. You stay away from her or she’ll corrupt your soul. You’ll burn in Hell for all eternity._

__

He thought about his vows and he thought about her and his faith felt like it weighed a thousand tonnes on his shoulders.

 

_Please, answer me God. What do I do?_

__

Lucifer looked to the bluest of blue skies and tried not to think about Chloe’s eyes as he prayed.

 

As he’d expected, God didn’t answer.

 

-

 

Lucifer arrived at Chloe’s door at exactly six fifty-five. He’d actually circled the block twice before settling on being five minutes early instead of twenty.

 

He fixed the collar of his gray button-down again, smoothing down the material and swiping away imaginary lint for the seven thousandth time.

 

Dark jeans completed the ensemble that he’d chosen. He’d fretted all the way over if this was casual enough and then he’d fretted even more over his own worrying. His stomach was in knots and he felt a little nauseous and he hoped that he wasn’t about to make a massive fool out of himself.

 

His hand raised to knock, his rolled up shirt sleeves showing off the multitude of different colours on his forearms. It occurred to him that Chloe had never actually seen his tattoos before and then the wave of fear hit him when he realised he would probably have to explain them at some point during the night.

 

There was no doubt that she would be curious and this was a… date? After all. Sort of. Possibly.

 

Before he could tug his sleeves down, Chloe had opened the door to him and he was left standing in the hall with his hand still partially raised.

 

“Hello,” he said breathlessly.

 

Her eyes ran up and down him, lingering curiously on his arms. He exhaled heavily when he saw her eyes darken. Maybe he should have worn something a little less flattering.

 

“Hi,” she responded at last. “Don’t you just clean up well?”

 

“I didn’t think the dog collar would blend in where we’re going,” he said and she laughed and he might have finally noticed what she was wearing because he went a little light headed. She leaned out of her door to grab his wrist and promptly tugged him inside.

 

“Come on. We wouldn’t want the neighbours to talk now would we?”

 

The blue sundress that she was wearing hugged her in the most inappropriate of ways, the material swishing around her thighs lightly. It stopped a good bit before her knee and his mouth went dry. All he could do was stare at the long, golden expanse of her legs- eyebrows hitting his hairline and all of the blood in his body fighting on whether to rush north to his face or south to his-

 

“Hey, eyes up buddy,” Chloe hit his chest with a loud smack and he jumped half a foot in the air.

 

“I- I wasn’t,” he stuttered, looking like wanted to crawl under a rock and simply cease to exist.

 

Chloe took pity on him and shoved him unceremoniously onto a bar stool at the kitchen counter.

 

“Well, you’d better have been looking,” she answered matter of factly. “I didn’t wear this for no reason.”

 

Lucifer took the fact that she was smiling softly as a good thing as she busied herself at the fridge and tried his utmost to ignore the slow, warm ache that was winding up in his stomach.

 

He took the opportunity to glance around.

 

Her apartment was spacious but surprisingly well loved. She’d never struck him as the home bird type but the items from various cultures cluttering the many shelves on two walls said otherwise.

 

Shells and rocks that could be from Heaven knows where, were piled in between wooden sculptures and carvings and mosaics. Books which- from where he was sitting- he could just make out were in several different languages and looked ancient were crammed cover to cover wherever they could fit between the various paraphernalia.

 

He smiled.

 

Go figure that his girl was smart-

 

He suddenly tensed at his own slip up. Not his girl. _Man of the cloth_ , he reminded himself harshly. _Man of the cloth. Man of the-_

 

A cold beer was placed in front of him and he looked up from where he’d been wringing his hands on his lap. He must have looked like a nervous wreck and he could feel himself blushing again. Oh this was going to be a common occurrence tonight, he just knew it.

 

Chloe didn’t say anything about it though, instead choosing to broach the subject of, “So, I’ve never asked. Do priests drink or is that like, ‘against the rules’?” she asked, air quoting.

 

He found himself laughing and shaking his head slowly, fingers curling around the cold, damp bottle.

 

“No, it’s not forbidden. It’s not an _apple,_ ” he said, chuckling even harder when she half-choked on her drink.

 

“You aren’t funny,” she wiped a drop of beer from her bottom lip and sat down opposite him, her smile saying otherwise.  

 

“If you don’t mind me asking, where did you get all of these books?” he gestured towards the wall of text with barely restrained eagerness because if there was one thing Lucifer loved, it was reading. Chloe’s eyes were bright with something unnamed at his joy over her collection but she bit her bottom lip and he guessed that he probably wouldn’t get a straight answer out of her.

 

“Here and there.”

 

Lucifer shook his head, sweeping a hand through his hair and smiling at her fondly. He honestly didn’t think he’d smiled this much in his entire miserable life. Surely someone who pulled that reaction from him- who made him this happy- surely, wanting them couldn’t be a sin?

 

In an attempt to ignore the question that had been eating at him for weeks now, he pointed instead to the shells and various rocks.

 

“Okay, since you’re avoiding questions here’s another one to not answer,” he said sarcastically, motioning again to the shelves in the living room. “What about the shells?”

 

“Beaches,” she said and sipped her beer, looking at him through her lashes in amusement. He groaned loudly and he knew that she was teasing him but damn her, was it frustrating.

 

“Alright,” he said with finality. “I’ll stop asking questions if it’ll make you happy. But you owe me seven Hail Mary’s and you have to actually hold a cross when you say them.”

 

Chloe flicked the wetness from her beer bottle at him, giggling.

 

She looked down at his arms with mischief shining in her eyes.

 

A deal was on the horizon it seemed.

 

“Tell you what, Father,” she said in a sultry voice that would have made half of the older ladies in his parish faint had they heard it. Hell, even he was a little dizzy now.. “You spill about the tattoos-” one finger trailed along a scripted Latin translation on his wrist. He shivered, delighted and frozen all at the same time. “And _I’ll_ spill about the shells.”

 

Lucifer barely heard her because he was _not_ and he very vehemently meant _not_ , fighting away a wave of arousal because she’d called him by his title. Or maybe he was and that’s why he had to blink when she waved a hand in front of his blank face.

 

“Are you listening to me big guy?” she poked his arm and he jumped, finally registering what had just transpired.

 

“Yes, right,” he huffed out, flustered. “You have yourself a deal Chloe.”

 

She beamed at him and that was that really. He felt the shift in his mind and he wondered if she could feel it too.

 

Something was in the air tonight.

 

-

 

He took her to one of his old haunts- a little bar called The Hudson, tucked away between a back alley and a tattoo parlour on the east side of town. Just the sort of place that he’d never set foot in since his wild years and where you were more likely to get shot than get drunk.

 

It wasn’t because he was cheap. He simply had a feeling that Chloe wasn’t the regular wine and dine type of girl.

 

Sure enough, as soon as they’d crossed the threshold and a table somewhere to their right had been upended- a man stumbling past them with a bloody nose- her whole face had lit up like a kid at Christmas. He’d watched her delight in the dim lighting, the pool tables and the jukebox before she turned to him and beamed.

 

“I _love_ it Lucifer!”

 

That was all it took to convince him that this had been the right idea.

 

Chloe seemed delighted at the prospect of an evening shooting pool and rubbing shoulders with some less than reputable people. She didn’t ask how he knew about this place though and for that he was grateful. He wanted to enjoy their evening before they got into any more serious matters.

 

So they bought food- which was surprisingly delicious and drank until she shoved her seat away and grabbed his arm, pulling him towards a free pool table.

 

Oh, if his parishioner’s could see him now, he mused.

 

He was leaning against the table while Chloe lined up her shot for what could possibly be her third win. Not that he hadn’t held his own. It was two all but by the looks of it, she wasn’t going to let this go without a fight.

 

Briefly, he entertained the notion that perhaps she’d hustled pool halls in her younger days. He wouldn’t put it past her. Downing the dregs of his beer, Lucifer felt an easy warmth sink into his bones that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

 

He wasn’t drunk but he was nearing his self-imposed limitations. Another two and he would switch to water but he was happy to keep up with her until then. She was on her eighth and _still_ kicking his ass at pool.

 

She sunk the eight ball without hesitation.

 

“Oh, look at that,” she stuck out her bottom lip at him and he laughed, shaking his head. “I believe that’s _another_ win for the master of pool. How do I do it?” she fanned herself dramatically.

 

“I humbly admit defeat love,” he held out his cue for her to take. The spoils of war. Her eyes glinted as she took it, enjoying his slip of the tongue and the pet name.

 

“Damn straight. I whupped you.”

 

Lucifer recoiled back, hand over her heart and scandalised expression on his face.

 

“You did no such thing. Three games to two is _hardly_ whupping me.”

 

Chloe smirked, leaning towards him and before he could digest what was happening, she bopped him on the nose with her finger. The scandalised expression was real now and she giggled, crooking her finger to draw him closer. Despite his better judgement, he did as she wanted.

 

“The fact that I’m holding your cue says otherwise,” she informed him, patting his cheek before pulling away and leaving him with the lingering ghost of her breath on his face.

 

Why that little __minx__ …

 

He found himself grinning at the back of her head though, as she slipped her hand into his and pulled him along behind her.

 

They headed back to their table and he tried very hard not to focus on the heat of her palm in his or the way their fingers seemed to fit so well together. But nothing he did seemed to distract him from those very facts.

 

“So,” she said, sitting down across from him.

 

Her fingers still rested over the words on his wrist as their hands lay entwined on the table. Even as his mind warned him to quit while he was ahead, Lucifer paid it no heed. He’d done enough tonight to warrant a month of praying for forgiveness and yet here he was, relishing the way her thumb swept over the line of text on his skin.

 

“So,” he worked his free hand through the dark curls on head. “What do you want to know?”

 

“I think I’m most curious about the I Am Victorious part,” she motioned to the writing again and his eyebrows rose almost comically.

 

“What?” he asked in a strangled tone.

 

“Ego vicit,” she said simply, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Can be very loosely translated as, I am victorious.” Christ alive, his body almost purred off of it’s own accord. Of course she could bloody read Latin.

 

It was like he’d made her in a computer.

 

“You know Latin,” he breathed a laugh of sheer disbelief, catching her fond smile out of the corner of his eye.

 

“I know a lot of things,” she pointed out and he couldn’t help but agree.

 

“A fair point,” he drawled.

 

“Now quit stalling,” she said and flashed him a pout like he wasn’t actually going to tell her anything. Of course he was. How could he bring her all the way here and chicken out at the last minute?

 

“What kind of man would I be to refuse a pretty face?” he said and found himself tracing a line of his own along his forearm, following a blue streak right until it met with her fingertips. He looked up at her then and she was watching him with a pensive expression, waiting patiently for him to begin. It was now or never it seemed.

 

Time to lay it all out.

 

“My dad,” he began slowly, searching for the right words to explain just how awful his childhood had been. “Lets just say he wasn’t a very nice man,” he gave her a sad, uneasy sort of smile in the hopes of not making the mood too heavy but she didn’t return it- her brow furrowing instead with an emotion he couldn’t pinpoint.

 

“He hurt you?” she asked and he felt himself nodding slowly.

 

“Hmm,” he made a non-committal noise, eyes back on his tattoos. “I think it was his favourite past time, actually,” he said darkly, forgetting for a moment where he was and finding himself back, curled in the farthest corner of his closet in the hopes that this time, maybe, his dad wouldn’t find his hiding spot.

 

He always had though.

 

“Well, after going to church of course.”

 

Something in his voice must have given him away because Chloe’s back stiffened and her upset frown morphed into a displeased scowl. He felt a dangerous wave of affection for her surge in his chest then. Dangerous and strong because she looked very much like she wanted to find his father and tear his limbs off.

 

Had the old man been alive he probably would have handed her his address.

 

“We used to get plenty of those back where I… worked,” she finished stiffly, her fingertips still warm and comforting on his skin but her expression guarded. He cocked his head to the side curiously and Chloe’s face said that she’d given more away than she’d wanted to.

 

“You worked in a prison?” he took a wild guess but she shook her head before stopping with a long suffering sigh.

 

“I suppose it was a prison of some sort,” she said, eyes fixed on their joined hands. “It’s not somewhere I like to talk about and it’s definitely not a place I’d ever want you to visit. You’re far too… kind. You’d never end up there.”

 

What she said should have been a compliment but her smile was almost sad and so were her eyes. Before he could ask the questions he wanted to though, she interrupted his thoughts and said, “Are you alright to keep talking about it?”

 

Oh, that’s right. They were talking about his buggered childhood.

 

“Certainly darling,” he nodded and he didn’t even notice his slip. But she did and she hid a smile by biting her lip.

 

“Well, when I was eighteen I ran away from home.”

 

“I knew it,” she hummed, thumb sweeping a wide line on his hand. “I knew you were a rebel deep, deep down,” she teased and he chuckled, nodding.

 

“Under the dog collar lies the heart of a true bad boy, love.”

 

“Called it from the start.”

 

He appreciated her lightening the moment and he fixed his eyes on her for a moment, drinking in the sweet look she was giving him that he’d never seen directed at anyone else. It made his stomach roll pleasantly and something warm swept over him.

 

“It was one of my proudest moments, I’ll have you know,” he beamed. ”I stole five hundred dollars from his wallet, keyed his brand new Cadillac, let the tires down and then caught the first bus I could to L.A.”

 

The pride that he felt made him sit up straighter, made his voice firmer and Chloe was enraptured, resting her chin in her free hand as he continued.

 

“The only regret I ever had about that night was not saying goodbye to my mother,” he deflated a bit.

 

Chloe’s grip on his wrist tightened ever so slightly and he could tell she was taken by his story.

 

It was nice, having someone to tell it to. The dawning realisation that he’d never once shared this part of himself with another person hit him like a tonne of bricks. This had always been between himself and God.

 

Yet, God had never gripped him tighter and looked at him with such fierce protection that he’d had to remember how to breathe.

 

“So, every year that I’ve been free of him, on February 25th, I get another tattoo,” he said simply. “Dad hated them. Thought people with tattoos were beneath him. Hell, he wouldn’t even let them on the front porch. Can you believe that?” he laughed, but the sound was hollow and it didn’t sit well in Chloe’s gut.

 

“This was my first,” he gestured to Ego Vicit. “I am victorious,” he lifted his chin, eyes blazing with rebellion and a ferocious lust for life and he grinned then- the emptiness in his voice suddenly filled with something else. Something more.

 

“I like to think I bloody well was.”

 

Chloe said nothing, letting him have his moment. Instead, she gently lifted their joined hands and placed a long kiss against his palm.

 

Lucifer watched her, half in fascination and half in wonder.

 

“If you want to know what I think,” she said after a moment and he nodded, prompting her to go on. “I think that he didn’t deserve you in the first place. You’re better than he was. Better than he could ever be. He knew you would be and I think he was jealous.”

 

His gaze softened.

 

“Thank you darling. That… that means a lot.”

 

Around them, the music in the bar shifted to something quieter- some big guy over by the jukebox clearly wanted to dance with his girl and no-one dared say otherwise lest they be on the receiving end of a right hook. Strains of some blues classic floated by and for a while, they allowed themselves just to sit and enjoy the music, not talking.

 

With anyone else, it might have been awkward he thought. But she was playing with his fingers idly, nursing her drink and watching the crowd like it was the most natural thing in the world.

 

She only spoke again when her drink was finished.

 

“So, my last job was… literally Hell,” she said, smiling to herself over some unknown inside joke. He was probably better not asking. Instead, Lucifer cocked his head to the side so he could afford her the same avid attention she’d given him. It was only fair.

 

“I used to love it, you know?” she sighed longingly, remembering better times and Lucifer squeezed her hand to bring her back to him. As selfish as it sounded, he didn’t want her longing for the good old days too much. He didn’t think he could bear her leaving all of a sudden.

 

“But after a while, everything just blurred together and I wasn’t enjoying myself anymore. It was monotonous. I kept thinking to myself- there’s so much to see out there and I’ll never, ever get to see it if I don’t leave now.”

 

“So you did?”

 

Chloe nodded. “I made a deal with my boss and here I am. Best deal I’ve ever made,” she grinned happily and he could see that she really meant it too. She was genuinely thrilled to be allowed to go and see the world. But he couldn’t help but wonder where she’d worked before. Or if he even wanted to really know.

 

“So you travelled?” he asked and she nodded in agreement. “Where?”

 

“Everywhere.”

 

Off his look, she rolled her eyes playfully and swatted him. “Yeah, yeah, I know that that sounds like some -bullshit hipster, twenty-first century and I own seventeen travel guides- answer but I actually mean _everywhere_.”

 

He raised an eyebrow and she gave him a look, clucking her tongue at his relentless teasing.

 

“You, Father Morningstar,” she curled her tongue against her teeth and his eyes darkened, heart pounded and that beer must have been stronger than usual because his stomach gave a little jolt like the world was spinning. How on earth she could pull such a reaction from him, he’d never know. “Are looking at a girl who has been on every continent and in one hundred and twenty-three countries in the world. The rest are either on my list or not interesting enough to visit.”

 

The look on his face was comical really. She snorted in a very unladylike fashion and shoved his arm to get him to stop gawking.

 

When he finally did come around again, he blinked owlishly and managed to recover the ability to use words. Barely.

 

“A- and the shells?”

 

“One from every beach I’ve ever visited.”

 

He spluttered. “But there are _hundreds_ on those shelves Chloe!”

 

“There are _hundreds of beaches_ , Lucifer,” Chloe winked at him and Lucifer couldn’t stop the belly laugh that came out of him. She was a bloody enigma, this woman and she was either going to be his making or his undoing.

 

Right now, he didn’t care which.

 

-

 

The cab dropped them off two blocks away from his apartment per their request. It was a pleasant night and neither wanted it to end yet. Lucifer was trying his best not to think about where this was going or the fact that she was still holding his hand as they walked through the quiet, dark streets. They passed under orange pools of lamplight and it cast shadows three times their height along the sidewalk. Chloe leaned against his arm, her free hand curling around his bicep and her cheek coming to rest on his shoulder.

 

Lucifer’s heartbeat stuttered in his chest and he found himself become unnaturally warm under her touch.

 

But he didn’t pull away.

 

They chatted about silly things. The drinks at the bar, about Chloe being crowned pool champion- a crown she insisted that she would never ever lose.

 

“Just you wait until next time, darling,” Lucifer warned and he felt her pause suddenly next to him, pulling him to a stop in the middle of the street. When he realised that he’d implied there would be another date, he felt his cheeks heat up. He wasn’t even attempting to deny his attraction any more.

 

What kind of man was he if he couldn’t even respect his _own_ word, let alone the word of God?

 

This was so bloody difficult. He looked at her and he saw everything he’d ever wanted staring back at him but behind him loomed the shadows of the vows he’d sworn- the silhouette of God Himself bearing down and asking why? Why was he betraying Him?

 

Her hand cupped his cheek, her brow furrowed when she spotted his miserable expression.

 

“Lucifer,” she murmured, lifting his face until he could look at her. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, you know that right?” While it looked as though it pained her to give him an out, he appreciated the honesty in her voice. “You can walk away and… and that’s okay.”

 

If he turned around now, left this tentative little thing they had to wither and die- she would let him. It would hurt them both deeply but she would still give him that choice and let him keep his faith in tact.

 

He couldn’t help it when the thought came unbidden. _What a wonder she truly was._

 

“I don’t want to walk away darling,” he admitted out loud, his voice thick with emotion.

 

The relief that filled her eyes was immense and he had a sneaking suspicion that his own face mirrored hers.

 

For a moment, she rested her cheek against his chest and he let her, reveling in the shared feeling of relief that had fallen over them. It was… different now. He was different, he supposed. She’d made him so.

 

“Do you ever regret it?” she asked suddenly, pulling her face away from the warm linen of his shirt and missing it already. He smelled so good and she wanted to bury her nose against the crook of his neck and inhale. That’s what an enhanced sense of smell got you. Instead, she settled for resting her palm over his rapid heartbeat.

 

It was reassuring to feel the steady pounding. Feel it so strong and healthy.

 

“Do I regret what, love?”

 

“Becoming a priest,” she clarified almost immediately and she caught the hint of a smile tugging at his mouth. “Worshipping the same God that your dad used as an excuse to hurt you.”

 

His smile disappeared, replaced by a thoughtful frown.

 

“I’ve never thought about it like that,” he explained softly, resting his hand over hers where it lay on his chest. “My dad wasn’t following God’s orders, no matter what he might have said. He was just a bully who picked on his children because he could. God was just the way he justified himself to us.”

 

Chloe nodded in understanding.

 

“I don’t regret the last few years,” he answered slowly, like he was picking his words carefully. It was true. He didn’t regret helping people and getting clean- eking out an actual life for himself instead of rotting to death in some bar somewhere.

 

Still though… there were things he wanted now that he hadn’t wanted five or six years ago and when he thought about them and how out of reach they seemed because he’d committed himself to a higher cause- well, regret rolled in his veins.

 

“But…” he trailed off and he saw something almost akin to hope glimmer in her expression.

 

Chloe dipped her head slightly, meeting his lowered gaze.

 

“But?” she probed gently.

 

“But not being allowed to have some things is…” he sighed, long and low and _tired _.__ The palm of his hand was warm and gentle against her cheek and he swept his thumb across the same high cheekbone that had captured his attention when they’d first spoken. There was no doubt in either of their minds about what he meant by ‘ _some things_ ’.

 

“I wonder what could possibly be so wrong with wanting them when they’re so bloody perfect.”

 

Chloe’s breath hitched in her chest because _damn him_. Damn him!

 

No-one, no demon or lost soul or human up here had ever looked at her like that before. With such open affection and longing. He’d called her perfect. __Her.__ The demon from Hell who had seen awful things and then returned them tenfold just because she wanted to. Who wasn’t supposed to step into the light.

 

Yet, here he was looking at her like she _was_ the fucking light.

 

There was no way to fight the rising urge in her chest. If she had then she might have spontaneously combusted on the spot.

 

Her eyes searched his face for even a hint that he was going to pull away as she leaned up, having to stand on her tiptoes to reach his lips. They had just barely brushed his before he was pulling back, looking shocked at himself for doing so.

 

Chloe couldn’t help the smile that split her face because he looked genuinely surprised as though he’d never been kissed by a woman before.

 

Maybe it really had been a long time for him. Oh well, she thought proudly. More for her in the end.

 

Lucifer’s mind was racing. This was it for him. The turning point in his life that he’d always expected would come in the one form of temptation or another. He’d always assumed that he would be able to resist it.

 

But her lips were so soft and she was looking up at him like she wanted to eat him and bloody Hell he was a weak, weak man. Anything would have been easier to resist than the call of her mouth to his own. So he simply stopped trying.

 

He was the one who initiated the second kiss with at least the good intention of keeping it chaste.

 

Fat chance.

 

The second his lips found hers again, Chloe’s fingers speared through the short hair at the base of his head and tugged him forward hard. His mouth opened in a half gasp and suddenly her tongue was grazing his like this was the last first kiss she was ever going to have. He very much hoped it was.

 

Lucifer had almost forgotten what it was like to kiss someone like this. Like you were about to die and this was the long goodbye. He let out a moan that was almost embarrassingly breathy but it only seemed to spur Chloe on. The hand that wasn’t in his hair was curled into a fist in his shirt, keeping him as close to her as possible.

 

Her teeth nipped his bottom lip and she tugged on it lightly before releasing it and going back to exploring his mouth.

 

God help him, she was good at this. Her mouth was warm and wet and _delicious_  and his hands found her waist to pull her against him almost automatically. He needed to feel her body heat, needed the shape of her moulded to him to make sure that she was real and not some apparition sent to tempt him.

 

Under a streetlight in downtown L.A , she kissed him with passion and fervour and her little breathless whimpers were driving him mad enough to wonder if she would sound like that when she was underneath him.

 

How could he ever have even thought about saying no?

 

Chloe exhaled his name into his mouth and Lucifer pulled back at last, his forehead resting on hers. His eyes were closed, chest heaving to draw in air to his burning lungs and he could feel her heartbeat thundering against his chest from where she was pressed so close.

 

All his vows had just gone out of the proverbial window and he _didn’t care_. The sudden high of letting go at last felt almost drug-induced. Like the swinging axe was gone from above his head.

 

Chloe nuzzled her nose against his neck, laying kisses here and there and he buried his face in her golden hair, inhaling the smell of the shampoo that he’d grown so accustomed to over the past few months.

 

She smelled divine.

 

“Are you okay?” she asked suddenly, drawing back. She didn’t go too far though because the feeling of him pressed so close to her was intoxicating and she didn’t want it to end.

 

There was something different in the way he looked, she thought as she stared up at him. There was none of the usual tension in his shoulders and his eyes were light- happy almost, like he was no longer bearing a thousand sins on his back.

 

His eyes bored into hers with an intensity that she hadn’t realised he possessed.

 

He nodded his affirmation slowly, his fingertips brushing her neck and sweeping her hair away from her face. He ghosted his touch up, tracing a line over her jaw- his thumb rubbing over her lips and it was so intimate that her stomach flipped in place.

 

How was her demonic nature supposed to compete with that fucking reverent look in his eyes? One that he was supposed to reserve for his God but was instead currently directing at her?

 

There was no way.

 

She kissed him again, he took her hand and with an almost non-existent tug, they were continuing on to his apartment.

 

-

 

Lucifer’s apartment was nothing like Chloe thought it would be. It was very sparsely decorated with hardly any personal touches. Like he barely lived in it let alone took the time to personalize it. Maybe it was because he spent so much time at the church. Hell, even his free time was spent elsewhere.

 

No pictures of himself with friends (she knew now why the family pictures were missing and that ground on her nerves immensely). Nothing that showed off the personality that she was growing to care for deeply.

 

It was… sad, she thought. That a man who could even evoke feelings so strong from a literal demon, had no-one to tell him how fucking wonderful he was every day of the week.

 

The only thing that really stood out to her was the small effigy of Christ on the cross that hung above the archway to the kitchen.

 

Chloe would have hissed at it had Lucifer not been nearby.

 

That was a conversation she didn’t need to have right now. Not while he was currently locking the front door behind them and when heat was slowly creeping along the insides of her thighs.

 

Instead, she chose to glare at it instead and she could almost feel the thing glare right back. It was like He was accusing her of stealing from Him. Of touching something she had no right to touch. Chloe tipped her chin upwards in defiance much like Lucifer had earlier.

 

_You’ve done nothing for him,_ she accused boldly in her head. _Nothing but cause him pain in the guise of being loving and deny him a real life._

__

She sneered at it once more before turning away and coming almost face to face with Lucifer himself.

 

She couldn’t help but admire just how tall he was in comparison to her. The way he held himself with zero clue as to just how attractive he was. He was looking a little less confident than he had on the street below but she was hoping that it had more to do with nerves than with anything else.

 

The thought that he might regret his decision terrified her for reasons she still had trouble wrapping her head around.

 

Maybe she would just have to get rid of those nerves.

 

Right here, she thought triumphantly.

 

Under the eyes of a God who had failed to protect him all his life. She wouldn’t make the same mistake He had.

 

Chloe reached out slowly, her fingertips grazing the seam of his shirt- over the bump of each button until her palm was flat against him and her hand was over his heart.

 

He covered it with his own and boldly stepped into her personal space, his head lowered.

 

Before Lucifer could even open his mouth to speak, Chloe had her lips on his. She moaned and felt the muscles of his neck twitch under her fingers. He exhaled hard and the tension in his shoulders dissipated slowly but surely.

 

“Chloe,” he murmured as her nose brushed his and her fingers slid upwards to stroke his hair.

 

“It’s okay,” she said, breath ghosting over his lips. “Let me take care of you,” she implored and he was utterly helpless against the way she said that. Every notion of this being a sin, or being wrong that had still raced in his mind, stilled at an almost dizzying speed and he was simply left alone with the thought of _wanting_  her.

 

His body buzzed wherever she touched it and it felt like electricity dancing under his skin- making his muscles jerk involuntarily.

 

The way her hair fell around her shoulders, shining and dazzling in the low light was enchanting. That shade of blue in her eyes that he’d yet to see be rivalled by anything or anyone could unwind him faster than anything else on earth.  

 

And so the months of clenching his fists and forcing himself to think of something else- anything else- were over.

 

For the first time since his self-indulgent shower, he allowed himself to openly think about what was coming tonight. How he was going to make love to her for the first time and something shifted low in his belly sending a tingling sensation to every extremity.

 

Chloe’s lips were on his neck now, trailing through his stubble and his breathing hitched without him meaning it to. Everything she did felt so good, like it was his first time all over again.

 

Bloody Hell.

 

He brought Chloe’s mouth back to his, both of his hands cupping her face and he let himself get lost in those pink, full lips again. That hot mouth that welcomed his tongue like she longed for it. Like she craved it like he did her. She moaned and he basked in the sound.

 

Basked in it like it was sunlight because he’d been the one to draw it from her.

 

Her gasp echoed around his empty apartment and he sighed longingly against her, his hands creeping up along her sides. They inched higher and higher until he allowed his thumbs to brush against the sides of her breasts lightly.

 

“Mmm, Lucifer,” she purred, her nose running along the sharp line of his jaw so she could drop a lazy bite to his pulse point. That was enough to spur him on further, cupping both breasts in his hands, kneading them and watching with acute arousal as her nipples hardened to stiff peaks under the caress of his thumbs.

 

Chloe’s hands dipped under the hem of his shirt, grazing the waistband of his trousers and scratching his stomach lightly with her nails.

 

It drew a sharp noise from his throat that was almost a whine and he rutted his hips forward mindlessly- attaching his mouth to her neck.

 

His cock was swelling, pressing uncomfortably against the zipper of his trousers and when her body unconsciously rubbed against him- he grunted in surprise and pulled away a bit.

 

Chloe’s wide eyed stare met him and he swallowed.

 

“Is everything-”

 

“Yeah,” he interrupted, shifting when his stomach muscles clenched. His balls ached already just from kissing her and from the promise of what was to come and there was a small part of him that was seriously concerned as the just how long he was going to last.

 

That would be embarrassing.

 

“It’s just…” he sighed, pulling her close again to reassure her that he wasn’t changing his mind. “It’s just been a while, if you get my drift.”

 

He really hoped that she did because his face was already beet red just saying _that_ and he might not survive going into detail. His cock was already straining against his jeans like it was seeking out her warmth and right now he didn’t think any amount of thinking about something else was going to help him.

 

The look of surprise on her face said she knew perfectly well what he was talking about, before it morphed into something sultry and teasing again.

 

“Well,” she purred, popping open a few buttons on his shirt- her eyes trailing down further and further. They settled on the bulge in the front of his pants appreciatively. He definitely wasn’t lacking in that department, if you caught her drift. Not from what she was currently seeing. Her belly tingled with excitement at the thought of sinking down onto him not long from now. But first…

 

“You can always repay the favour while you’re recovering, can’t you? Shouldn’t take long- a young man like you,” she said and with the last word, she bit his bottom lip gently.

 

Lucifer groaned headily, his eyes fluttering closed when her hand cupped his erection through his pants.

 

That felt _good _.__  

 

Her fingers massaged him lazily, combining gentle squeezes with light brushes against the material that left him half panting for skin to skin contact.

 

“Recovering?” he asked lazily, trying to resist the urge to rub against her touch like he was a horny teenager. He might as well have been for all the sex he’d _not_ been having over the last five years. Just a look from her was building up worrying pressure and it didn’t help that that sundress of hers was showing a lot of her tanned skin.

 

She had freckles on her shoulders, he observed through the haze and it just served to turn him on even more. Her breasts rubbed against his chest, hard nipples scraping through the fabric where she pressed herself against him for a moment- before pushing him backwards towards the wall of his living room.

 

His back met it with a light thud and he sincerely hoped that his neighbours were out tonight. That would certainly be an awkward hallway meeting to remember.

 

Chloe was suddenly gone from his arms, but before he could mourn the loss of her body heat, she was answering his ‘recovery’ question physically rather than verbally.

 

There was the girl of his dreams, sinking to her knees in front of him.

 

_Ah_ , was all he could think deliriously.

 

On her way down, Chloe left several red lip marks increasingly lower on his torso. His cock twitched with each one and he moaned with every jolt of pleasure.

 

She left them on his collarbone, over his right nipple- where she paused and lightly bit down and he had to press his head back against the plaster to stop himself from coming then and there. She added two on the toned muscles of his stomach, starting open mouthed and then dragging her lips shut to draw out the kisses.

 

The last one was a very firm press of her lips to the line of hair underneath his bellybutton and Lucifer shuddered.

 

He was practically white knuckled by the time she deemed it fit to start undoing his belt.

 

His zipper and button proved no match for her deft fingers and suddenly, Lucifer felt his burning cock hit the cool air of the room. Chloe made a noise of appreciation, ghosting one finger down the length of his shaft but never touching him. He whined in his throat and she shot him a very amused look.

 

“Someone’s eager,” she teased, slowly curling her fingers around the base of him. She brought his head, pre-come leaking from him already, to her lips and circled a slow sweep of her tongue over the most sensitive part.

 

His head hit the wall hard enough to make his vision blur and Chloe was mildly concerned that he might knock himself out if she did that again… but the taste of him, salty and masculine lingered on her tongue and she wanted _more _.__ So she simply smiled at his expression of lust when he ducked his head down to look at her again. Darkened eyes, pupils blown wide and his cock straining beneath her fingers and they’d barely begun yet.

 

The night was going to be exceptional, she could tell.

 

Taking an ounce of pity on him, she rubbed the head over him over her lips- parting them just enough to kiss him before pulling back.

 

“Chloe,” he said, his voice guttural and low. His stomach muscles clenched and so did hers because the way he said her name did things to her. A sudden wave of arousal washed over her, starting in her belly and creeping lower to end in a warm crash between her legs. She sighed, pleased at the feelings he could pull from her.

 

She clenched her thighs together, feeling a slick warmth seep into her panties and she moaned.

 

Chloe didn’t waste another second in moving forward and she took him into her mouth with no more teasing. Her tongue flattened on the underside of him and dragged upwards while she hollowed her cheeks in a gentle sucking motion. His back arched, pushing his shoulders against the wall and his cock further back into her mouth.

 

She certainly wasn’t complaining.

 

Lucifer’s idle hands were suddenly desperate for something, anything to hold on to and of course, the only thing he could think of was the bobbing head below him. He carefully laced his fingers through her hair, silky blonde strands tangling in his fingers and tickling his thighs as she worked him eagerly with her mouth.

 

He couldn’t stop the little jerk of his hips each time she took him a deeper, but she didn’t seem to mind.

 

Instead, she hummed around him and pulled back with a smile when he shuddered. She continued to pump him lazily with her hand, her tongue flicking patterns on his glans- rolling and pressing against the slit and sending pulses from his groin to the rest of him at an alarming rate.

 

Lucifer couldn’t look away from her.

 

He was utterly entranced by the sight his slick cock in her hand and when Chloe glanced up and met his gaze again, she tipped her head back and planted an open mouthed kiss on his shaft.

 

He groaned, wanton and tense and Chloe felt her own body’s desire begin to overwhelm her as well.

 

His eyes had fluttered closed again as the pleasure began to be too much, a tendon in his neck tense as he clenched his jaw.

 

Chloe purred.

 

“Lucifer, look at me,” she implored and although it took him a moment, he blearily opened his eyes to meet her. Trailing her free hand along his leg, she made sure he was still watching as she switched to her own thigh and slipped her fingers underneath the hem of the dress he liked so much.

 

Lucifer was wide eyed as her own eyes closed briefly and she let out a breathy whimper of his name.

 

Heat seared across him and he almost came right there. But somehow, he restrained himself and it was enough for her to lower her mouth back onto his cock with a renewed energy. Every muscle in his body was tightening, he could feel it. He wanted to close his eyes and revel in the feeling of her mouth but he couldn’t for the life of him.

 

Because doing that meant he would have to tear his eyes away from her hidden hand. The hem of her dress hid most of what she was doing, but the easy flick of her wrist in a continuous motion was more than enough for him to guess.

 

She whimpered longingly around him and all he could envision were those dainty little fingers circling her clit. Slipping into her wet pussy- into the same slick arousal that was there because of _him _.__

__

The very notion that Chloe was aroused because of him was what did it at long last.

 

He called out her name loudly, fingers tightening in her hair as he came.

 

Somewhere in the far reaches of his cloudy mind, Lucifer expected her to pull away but when had Chloe ever done anything that he’d expected?

 

Instead, she pitched forward and the hand that she’d been pleasuring herself with found the door behind him as she steadied herself- taking him deeper. He could feel the muscles in her throat working as she swallowed and the sensation only served to draw another pulse from him.

 

His breath came in shuddering gasps and he felt her other hand leave him in favour of stilling his jerking hips. She thumbed soothing circles on his exposed skin as he panted, his eyes screwed shut while he attempted to find some modicum of control on his person. It was very difficult, he wasn’t going to lie.

 

Chloe released him with a wet pop, stretching out the ache in her jaw before looking up at him with a catlike satisfaction.

 

Lucifer looked _wrecked_.

 

His shirt was splayed open wide over his narrow hips- revealing a toned stomach and chest that she couldn’t help but appreciate. He so often hid himself underneath heavy black cloth. Who’d have guessed that he was hiding all of this?

 

The belt buckle that she’d opened in haste was pulling one side of his trousers open further than the other, giving her a pleasant view of the line of hair that ran down from his bellybutton and met the dark curls at the base of him.

 

The hem of his boxers was tucked underneath his softening cock, still rubbing against him whenever he inhaled.

 

Oh what a sight to behold. She wondered if anyone had ever truly appreciated him before.

 

If she wanted to torment herself any further she’d have almost thought that he was an angel because no man could be this beautiful and not be of the divine. But instead of dwelling on such things, Chloe backed away a little bit and tugged firmly on the open sides of his shirt, indicating that she wanted him to sit.

 

Lucifer was in no fit state to refuse.

 

He slid bonelessly down the wall until he hit the floor with a grunt, one leg stretched out in front of him and the other bent slightly at the knee. He was still pulling in shaky breaths and Chloe couldn’t help but smile at the sated, pleased look on his face.

 

She wanted him to look like that all the time, instead of looking as though the world was tearing him apart.

 

“Did I break you?” she asked teasingly, reaching forward to comb a stray lock of hair away from his forehead. It was damp with perspiration much like the rest of him.

 

Lucifer hummed a throaty laugh, showing his canines in a wide smile that she took to meant- ‘ _yes, probably’_.

 

Her own arousal was thrumming through her veins in steady pulses and without another word, Chloe stood and removed her dress. It only took one smooth motion for it to be over her head, the air of the room hardening her nipples even more since she’d forgone a bra. She could feel Lucifer’s eyes burning all over her and she held his gaze for a moment, hooking her thumbs into the sides of her panties and slowly trailing them down her legs.

 

She kicked them away and he blinked up at her slowly, like his brain was malfunctioning.

 

Fuck he was adorable.

 

“Well, you’ve broken me _now_ ,” he said hoarsely after a moment and she laughed, kneeling down again to tug off his shoes one by one. Lucifer let her, only moving his sluggish body to lift his hips so she could shimmy his pants and boxers off of his legs.

 

He shucked his shirt by himself, flinging it into the void of his apartment.

 

Then with no more fanfare to be had, he found himself with a lap full of Chloe.

 

Oh there were __certainly__  worse position to be in, he mused as he foggily remembered what to do with his hands. She was always so warm, like she was at fever pitch all the time and without their clothes to act as a barrier, he could feel every inch of her as she seared heat into his skin. It tore a groan out of him as she inched her whole body as close to him as she could possibly get.

 

He moved his hands upwards from where he’d rested them on her waist. There was no point in being coy about things now. He widened his grip until his fingers were splayed as far as they could go and laid them over her rib cage. There was a momentous moment of pride that he felt just how much skin he could cover with his hands.

 

She was so small compared to him. Short and slim and bloody Hell, he just wanted to wrap his arms around her and keep her safe with him forever.

 

Chloe’s fingers traced fire along his arms, over his shoulders and across his collarbone. She thumbed over his nipples and he hummed a sound that was said he was in no way against what she’d just done.

 

She did it again and he nuzzled the top of her breasts, having pulled her within kissing distance again.

 

Her breasts hovered so close to his mouth now that he couldn’t resist them any longer.

 

Lucifer lowered his mouth to one slowly, lips gliding over her skin in the barest hint of a kiss.

 

Chloe watched him, her body eager with desire. Her nails scratched his scalp lightly as she resisted the very real urge to whine and pull him where she wanted him. It took what felt like an age for his mouth to finally close around her nipple.

 

His mouth was warm and wet though and it drew a gasp from her. Lucifer was clearly encouraged by the sound, his pink tongue lapping at her once before he fastened his lips around her again.

 

The pull sent tingles straight to her belly- hard enough to make her inner muscles clench around nothing. The tip of his tongue flicked out without warning and she shivered, feeling one of his arms band around her with a sensation of being enclosed in solid, hard muscle and the firm press of his wide palm between her shoulder blades.

 

She rolled her hips, the throb in her clit seeking friction but it was too soon after such a spectacular blowjob and he wasn’t hard again yet.

 

She whimpered longingly and with her free hand she grabbed his- drawing it away from where it was now covering her thigh.

 

Lucifer pulled back from her breast and for a moment, she was worried that she’d pushed him to fast. But he simply looked at her with eager eyes and a cheeky smile before dipping his head towards her other nipple.

 

Chloe could have rejoiced. She’d never seen him smile like that before. It was almost seductive and it only made her desire for his hands on her all the more prominent.

 

With his permission clearly given, she laced her fingers with his and brought their joined hands to the heat between her legs.

 

At the first easy touch of his rougher fingers across her, she jerked a little bit in his embrace and shuddered as what felt like electricity raced alone her spine. That was certainly an interesting reaction…

 

“Oh fuck,” she said softly as he let her guide his hand to all of the places that made her scream. As he got the rhythm that she liked down, she felt him move his fingers on his own. But the shared intimacy of keeping her hand over his stopped her from pulling away as she followed his movements.

 

His fingers dipped slightly, coating themselves in her arousal and sliding back up to smear it over her clit. Chloe heard a high pitched whine leave her and she surged forward, kissing his chin, his cheek, the corner of his mouth and pleading for him to please- please move.

 

Lucifer didn’t seem the teasing type but after tonight she’d learned that he was indeed full of surprises.

 

He grinned wickedly against her lips and she pulled back with a frustrated whimper when he barely grazed her swollen clit with the tip of one finger.

 

“You jerk,” she muttered softly, resisting the urge to let him see her smile.

 

He had no such qualms.

 

“Should I stop then?” he asked in a light, teasing tone that she found she quite liked in that sexy accent of his. Her palm caressed his cheek and she drew his mouth to hers for a chaste kiss.

 

“No, please don’t.”

 

Lucifer took pity on her and instead of drawing out his teasing, he pulled the hood of her clit back and swept a firm touch to the bundle of nerves. Chloe jerked hard against him, her hips bucking involuntarily. He repeated the motion again and his gaze never left her face, tracing every detail, every pleasured expression that he was drawing out of her. The way her eyes fluttered shut and her wet lips parted…

 

Her responsiveness was making his cock twitch encouragingly against his thigh and the wet, slick heat that coated his fingers was making him lightheaded whenever he thought about sinking himself inside.

 

Pride was a sin, he remembered hazily. But then again, he was pretty sure that fingering a beautiful woman who didn’t even __believe__  in God on the floor of his apartment was alsoa sin.

 

Yet, here he was.

 

Chloe was panting under the surprising deftness of his fingers. She’d, apparently wrongfully, assumed that she might have to take the lead a little more for this first time but Lucifer was either a very quick learner or it was all coming back to him at last.

 

She tipped her hips forward encouragingly, her breaths coming sharper and quicker now and he took the not so subtle hint to slide his ring and middle fingers inside of her. Chloe’s grip tightened where she’d been holding onto his shoulder and her mouth dropped open, nails digging into his skin.

 

He grunted softly but didn’t complain. Chloe leaned into him, so close that their noses were brushing.

 

“You, know,” she said. “You’re very good at this,” her voice was almost accusatory, like she’d expected to have the upper hand all night. He chuckled, his confidence returning a bit by bit now that he knew she was definitely enjoying it.

 

“Do you want the truth darling?” he said, pressing a long kiss to the corner of her mouth. Chloe nodded, moaning her appreciation and rocking her hips now in time to the lazy thrusting of his long fingers. “I’m sort of winging it. I’m a little rusty,” he admitted.

 

She didn’t have time to respond before he experimentally curled his fingers inside her and a look of concentration swept over his features until-

 

Chloe’s back arched and a loud cry tore from her throat as he found her G-spot and pressed the heel of his hand upwards on her clit at the same time.

 

He ground against her clit and her hips picked up pace off of their own accord, little cries and a steady rhythm of high pitched ‘ _ugh, ugh, ugh_ ’ filled his living room. He was glued to the way her eyes screwed shut, the way her nails dug into his shoulder and how her other hand was wrapped around his wrist in case he felt the need to stop.

 

Not that he would.

 

Not when she was clearly so close to orgasm.

 

Jesus, he’d never thought he’d do this again, let alone with a woman as bloody perfect as her. But with a well timed thrust of his fingers, Lucifer pressed down on her belly with his free hand at the same time- increasing the pressure on her G-spot and finally drawing the climax that he’d been chasing out of her.

 

Her thighs shook a little and her choked cry of his name cut off in the humid air.

 

She fell against his chest, panting with the effort of holding herself up and once again, pride surged forward in his chest. Pride that he’d made the woman he was so enamored with come just as hard as he had. That and relief that he wasn’t as useless and terrible as he’d feared he would be.

 

He gave a shaky laugh and she mirrored it with one of her own, nuzzling her nose into his neck and peppering kisses wherever she could.

 

“That was your ‘rusty’?” she pulled away suddenly, cheeks flushed and her hair wild from his hands earlier. She pushed it out of her eyes so she could see his sheepish smile a little better. He shrugged softly, not really knowing what to say.

 

“I want to make it good for you, love,” he said, his voice barely a whisper as he surveyed her face. “You deserve it to be good.”

 

Chloe, demon forged in the guts of Hell itself, felt something odd blossom in her chest as she looked at him. This priest. This _man_. Is this what all those souls had cried out for, she wondered, stroking her palm over his cheek, revelling in the scratch of his stubble on her palm. Is this what they begged for in their prisons?

 

This warm, full feeling of his skin against hers- coming down from a sweet high with the promise of more?

 

She suddenly understood them all a little better.

 

Lucifer was hard again, she could feel- apparently getting her off got _him_ off as well- and she drew her bottom lip between her teeth, watching his expression darken as she took him into her hand and stroked lightly.

 

With no more preamble, Chloe raised up on her knees, her fingers on the base of his cock.

 

Lucifer’s hands on her hips helped her rise high enough on her still shaky legs and Chloe shimmied forward enough to line him up with her entrance. She wrapped one arm around his neck, hand gripping him to steady herself. She couldn’t quite get over just how much that last orgasm had wrecked her.

 

His chin rested heavily on her chest and his thumbs rubbed light circles on her sweat slicked skin.

 

Chloe huffed in pleasure as she sank slowly onto his cock- the head spreading her wide and the rest of his thick shaft stretching her muscles to an almost painfully satisfying width. She brought his fingers to her mouth, drawing one between her lips and sucking softly. His thighs tensed a little between hers and she smiled.

 

His grip was tightening on her hips with every millimetre she pressed down and his jaw clenched as he tried to rein in the urge to mindlessly thrust upwards and bottom out inside her. But in spite of his body telling him other wise, he didn’t move, instead just watching himself disappear into tight, searingly hot muscles that fluttered around him with every move she made.

 

Honestly he was surprised he was still conscious but miracles do happen.

 

The palm of one small hand was pressed over his heart and her other finally let go of the base of his cock where she’d steadied him and with a shimmy of her hips, she slid down all the way in one fluid motion.

 

He pressed his head back against the wall firmly and Chloe watched is throat bob as he swallowed. She leaned forward and licked a stripe upwards from the hollow of his throat and then across his jaw until she could nibble on his ear lobe.

 

She ground her hips in a slow circle, not raising herself off of him yet and Lucifer moaned loud enough for most of the floor to hear.

 

She didn’t waste any time in diving forward and plundering his mouth with a kiss.

 

If it was even possible, Chloe moulded herself even closer to him like she never wanted to let him go and something unfurled itself deep down in his stomach, awoken by the possessive way she clung to him.

 

He grunted and lifted his knees up so his feet were flat on the floor and she was enclosed between his thighs and his body.

 

Her elbows rested on his shoulders, stroking lazy patterns through his hair and his arms dipped low in the ghost of a hug. She’d thought he would encourage her to keep still for a moment but instead he pushed lightly on her hips signalling for her to move.

 

Chloe was never much for following orders often but this was one she couldn’t refuse.

 

She rolled her hips as much as the minimal space would allow and it was enough for her to rise off of him an inch or two and then sink back down. Her eyes fluttered shut and Lucifer huffed a pleased breath that tickled her neck.

 

_Oh fuck that was good._

__

A shared thought between them that might as well have been said aloud for the eager way Chloe began to keep it up in an easy rhythm. The empty feeling she would suffer through on every upwards rise was more than worth the fullness of taking him all the way back inside a moment later.

 

Lucifer captured a nipple with his mouth again, nipping and sucking until Chloe was messily pulling on his hair and panting hard. Much like in many other situations that involved Lucifer, Chloe couldn’t keep her mouth shut for long and soon noises of pleasure weren’t the only thing filling the room.

 

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was unsure of how he might react but Hell, they’d gotten this far and chances are they weren’t stopping until they were done- so she might as well just go for it.

 

So she leaned forward, until her lips were grazing his ear.

 

“So _full_ Lucifer,” she mewled and bloody Hell if that noise didn’t just shoot straight to his balls and make them tighten. She felt, rather than saw him respond- his grip almost bruising on her hips and the air in his lungs rushing past her cheek.

 

“Is that right, sweetheart?” he murmured lowly, tentatively, tilting his head so he could press a sloppy kiss to her lips. Chloe took that as all the encouragement she would need to continue.

 

“I want you to like it,” she cried into his ear, tracing the shell with the tip of her tongue. His body convulsed beneath her and she rolled her hips again, harder this time. “I want you to like filling me up.”

 

“I do. Bloody Hell, _I do _,__ ” he uttered mindlessly in response, nipping and licking any inch of skin he could reach. Chloe whined when he said that, endlessly pleased with his reply. He really did want her as badly as she wanted him.

 

The pace was slow but it was a burning, building tide that Lucifer could feel in his fingers. He could only revel in the glide of her slick stomach over his with every gentle bounce of her in his lap.There was no thought of God anymore. No thought of sinning or of how much guilt he should be feeling for technically having sex with one of his congregation.

 

He didn’t feel anything other than sweet relief at being inside her at last.

 

It was like being welcomed home.

 

“Tell m- _ugh_!” she cried out, cutting off her own sentence when he met her downwards thrust with one of his own, his body much more impatient than his mind. Chloe wasn’t quiet for long though. “Tell me,” she continued, dipping her face to his and kissing him deeply- her tongue sweeping across his and drawing noises from him that he didn’t even know he could make.

 

“Please, tell me you won’t regret this. Tell me that you’ve wanted me all this time like I’ve wanted you,” Chloe whimpered, swivelling her hips again.

 

“I won’t, I won’t I swear to you,” he panted, his throat hoarse from moaning so much. He pulled her down into his lap hard and didn’t let her rise up again- choosing instead to encourage her to grind down. He wanted to stay seated firmly inside her it seemed.

 

“The second I laid eyes on you- I, I wanted…” he choked out when she squeezed tight around him like a vice. Chloe’s fingertips grazed his cheek reverently.

 

“Wanted what?” she asked, her voice quiet and choked.

 

Lucifer’s eyes flicked past her writhing body, meeting the cold stare of Jesus that hung above the archway.

 

Those empty eyes staring down at him were such a terrible contrast to the warmth of Chloe in his arms, on his __cock__ as she made him feel good.

 

“Lucifer, look at me,” she urged and his eyes snapped back to hers. “Tell me baby, tell me what you wanted,” she said encouragingly, her pace increasing incrementally every few seconds until he was forced to flatten his legs to the floor as she rode him at a gallop. “Say it,” she pleaded, raking red lines along his chest with her nails as his jaw clenched and he finally blurted out-

 

“I wanted to fuck you, Chloe.”

 

She keened in his embrace, stopping her movements abruptly as she came.

 

The push and pull of her fluttering muscles was more than enough to yank him under the current with her and he felt like he was drowning- gasping for breath as Chloe shuddered and clenched around him again and again.

 

He came with an uneven, stuttering sigh of her name and he’d be damned if it didn’t sound like a prayer as his come filled her, drawing out another long moan of satisfaction from his lover.

 

Lucifer couldn’t stop touching her, his big hands stroking her stomach, her sides, the top of her tired thighs and her own hands were on his shoulders again, rubbing across the expanse of them and then across his chest, gently stroking the ragged red lines she’d left there.

 

Chloe made no move to lift herself off of him, staying where she was and instead dipping to press a lazy, tired kiss to his mouth.

 

Lucifer returned it.

 

He felt like he should be waiting. Waiting for the shame and guilt to arrive and drive them apart like he’d been silently expecting this whole time. But nothing came. Only a satisfied feeling of euphoria over every tremble of her muscles and the pleasant ache in his own.

 

She petted his face, his hair- smiling at him like he’d given her the sun.

 

“Lucifer,” she said, her lilting voice like music to his ears.

 

“ _Chloe_ ,” he replied with a light laugh in the same tone. “As much as I don’t want to sound cliche and ruin the moment,” he said, eyes dipping over her body and then back up to her face. “Are you absolutely sure that you aren’t an angel?”

 

Chloe snorted and pushed his head lightly to one side. He grinned.

 

“You’re such a dork,” she said, her forehead falling to his shoulder and they both winced a little bit when his laughter shook them too much. “Ah!” she giggled, “No moving. No-o moving.” She nuzzled her face deep against his neck and he smiled against her hair, relaxing back to the wall with a sigh of contentment.

 

Tomorrow, he would have some of the biggest decisions in his life facing him down. He knew that, Lucifer mused, stroking the soft skin of Chloe bare back. His fingers played along her spine and she shifted, lifting her head to look at him.

 

Somewhere under all of her usual bravado, concern still shone in her eyes.

 

“You’re sure, aren’t you? About not regretting this?”

 

He hummed a laugh.

 

“Chloe-”

 

“I mean,” she continued, ignoring him. “It wasn’t just spur of the moment sex talk, right?”

 

He’d never seen her look so nervous in all the time that he’d known her. Lucifer shook his head firmly, cupping her chin with his thumb and forefinger to bring her lips to his. The kiss was sweet and soft and Chloe melted right into it. It was going to take some time to get used to being kissed like that.

 

“No, darling. I don’t regret anything,” he said, his thumb swiping over her lips.

 

“Okay.”

 

Chloe swallowed back the sudden, irritating lump in the back of her throat. Imagine that, she thought as she curled into his arms again. A demon finding solace in a priest. Oh the world was such a fucking ironic place. She pressed herself against him more and felt his arms tighten around her.

 

One day, in the distant, distant future, she would lose him like Mazikeen had lost her human all those years ago and the thought of it was almost too much to bear. Still, she pushed the thought away and sank into the warmth of him. So alive and happy under her hands.

 

Now, here in their own personal sanctuary, they could have each other.

 

She couldn’t ask for more than that.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, there it is folks. 
> 
> You just read my application form to Hell.
> 
> Ooh, I hope I get in.


End file.
